Support for the Big Dig comes from the Cape Playhouse in Dennis Village, now playing Anastasia the musical.

Up next, the Broadway hit, Come From Away. Tickets at capeplayhouse.com.

Did you know Fred Salucci by reputation?

Oh, yeah. Everybody did.

Were you excited to work with him?

Oh, I think we were all ready to do fabulous things,

and we're excited to be working on the project.

But it's hard.

I think it was hard for almost anybody to really challenge Fred.

Martha Bay. Martha Bailey started working for the Big Dig in 1986.

In those days, it still went by the unwieldy name of the Central Artery and Tunnel Project,

and it wasn't really on the public's radar yet. I mean, yes, Michael Dukakis had announced the idea with a big, full-color maps. And yes,

Tip O'Neill was down in Washington fighting to fund it, but it wasn't real, real. At least not

that most people could see.

Just upstairs in the city's main train station, unknown to the commuters flowing through every day,

a staff of hundreds had already assembled, engineers, planners, consultants, all working to make the big dig reality.

And we had big offices. It was very grand indeed.

So the bigger it was, the more papers that I accumulated.

Position papers and new designs and you couldn't possibly read everything.

So like truly stacks of papers like a foot high or feet high?

Yep. I have a wonderful picture of it.

Oh really?

...