“Big Dig engineers thought they were making a wise investment by spending millions of dollars building a series of hidden compartments that were meant to someday carry unsightly utility cables, like cellphone antennas, through the tunnels. But now that cellphone companies are finally wiring the tunnels for service, they bypassed the ready-made ducts and began driving holes into the already-leaking walls of the $15 billion system to anchor a mishmash of cables. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which runs the tunnels, at one time valued the duct system at $13.9 million. Now, it sits mostly unused.” (05/19/08)