While you were being joyous and full of good cheer . . .

For those of you who might have missed this little news item during your holiday revelry, the final cost for the completion of the "Big Dig" (the nation's most complex and costliest highway project) in Boston came in at $14.8 billion. When the project began, the cost was expected to be $2.6 billion. That's a modest cost overrun of almost 470%. Four hundred and seventy percent.

Meanwhile, back here at home, the "Little Dig" is underway to bore the first of two holes below the Allegheny River between downtown and the North Shore at a projected cost of $435 million.

The meter's running.