Mass. Home Made From Scraps From Big Dig

The home of Paul Pedini and Cristina Perez-Pedini in Lexington, Mass., is shown Tuesday July 18, 2006. The structure is constructed almost entirely of steel and concrete from Boston's Big Dig, utilizing over 600,000 lbs of recycled materials. (AP Photo/William B. Plowman) (William B. Plowman - AP)

LEXINGTON, Mass. -- It's over budget, Paul Pedini says of his Big Dig house, but at least "it doesn't leak."

Pedini wants the home _ built using steel and concrete salvaged from Boston's $14.6 billion highway construction project _ to be a prototype for recycling.

"These materials are as good as you can get," said Pedini, a 51-year-old civil engineer who spent a decade working on the Big Dig. "We were being paid money to junk this stuff. There's something inherently illogical about it."

So instead of dumping top-shelf materials, recycle them into a public housing project, municipal parking garage, prison, even as a replacement bridge.

The key, Pedini said, comes in identifying the second use, so the materials can be engineered for two uses.

It took just three days to erect the frame of the "Big Dig house," a 4,300-square foot home, which cost $645,000 to build. It overlooks a neighborhood of modern homes atop a hill in Lexington, a tony suburb about 12 miles west of Boston.

Pedini worked 11 years on the Big Dig, better known for its failures _ water leaks, cost overruns and a recent accident where ceiling panels fell, killing a passenger in a car _ than its success in burying the hulking Central Artery beneath downtown Boston. At the time, he was a vice president for Modern Continental Co., one of the project's main contractors.

To keep motorists moving in and out of the city during the oft-delayed project, temporary ramps were built using hundreds of prefabricated concrete slabs.

Architect John Hong, who Pedini hired in 2003 to design his home, was skeptical until he saw the dismantled highway pieces and thought, "It's actually very efficient."

The home was designed by Hong and partner Jinhee Park, founders of Single Speed Design in Cambridge. Concrete slabs, each about 40 feet long and weighing up to 25 tons, comprise the floors and roof. Besides the 600,000 pounds of steel and concrete, the rest of the home has new materials.

Pedini got the materials for free, estimating the giveaway saved Modern $20,000 in demolition and dumping fees.

"People get resentful. They say, 'Well, how come you got the materials?'," said Pedini, who paid a crew $10,000 to transport the slabs on trailers. "Well, to be truthful they belonged to the company. They were trash, they were junk."