Massachusetts Turnpike Authority

Traffic, Tolls, Maps, Service & Tourist Centers, Park & Ride, Emergency Services, Truck Regulations, and Tourist Destinations

News from the Turnpike Authority and our Meeting Calendar

Big Dig Project Background, Updates, Photos and Artist Gallery

Turnpike History, Financial Information, Turnpike Regulations and Leadership

Contracts and Business Opportunities with the Turnpike

E-mail Form, Our Address and Phone Numbers

• Project Updates
• Parks and Urban Restoration
• Multimedia and Publications
• Project Background
  • Tunnels and Bridges
  • Facts & Figures
  • Archaeology
  • Environmental
    • What Are We Digging?
    • Quarry Hills
    • Spectacle Island
    • Gardner Street Landfill
    • Granite Rail Quarry
    • Rumney Marsh Restoration
    • Artificial Reef System
    • Controlling Diesel Air Pollution
  • Engineering Marvels
  • Mitigation
  • Equipment
  • History

Quarry Hills

Through a partnership with the City of Quincy, called the Quarry Hills Project, the Big Dig's excavated material has transformed three adjoined landfills into a major new recreational complex located adjacent to the Blue Hills Reservation. The complex includes two golf courses, four baseball fields and two soccer fields.
 
Since 1997, CA/T project dirt has been trucked to the recreational site, formerly two West Quincy landfills: an 178-acre closed landfill owned by the City of Quincy and a second older 25-acre landfill now owned by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The third is the town of Milton's 56-acre landfill. The mounds of trash were covered with 20 to 30 feet of historic fill, which was graded and shaped then topped with an 18-inch Boston Blue Clay cap. At the Quarry Hills construction site, all the historic fill was tested for contaminants before being placed on the landfill.

Click any of the images below for full views of these areas and more information.

                   

City of Quincy 178-acres.         MDC-owned 25-acre site.      Quincy landfill looking N.

Also in Quincy, the project has filled Swingles Quarry, a 400-foot-deep abandoned quarry pit, which has been a public-safety hazard for more than a quarter century. Nearly seven million cubic yards of Big Dig material has been trucked to Quarry Hills and Swingles.

Today

The developers of Quarry Hills have converted the area into a beautiful golf course and other recreational facilities.

History

The Thomas Crane Public Library of Quincy provides a website which displays many dozen, historic black and white photographs of the Swingles, Granite Rail and other Quincy quarries.

Also, be sure to check out our archaeology section for discoveries made all over the project.