Boston’s Big Dig is nearly done

Visitors who haven’t been to Boston lately will find there are new ways to get from the airport to the city and around town too. Summer will bring a new convention center and an island park with commanding views of the city’s skyline.

For the new routes, drivers can thank the Big Dig, the $14-billion-plus construction project that, among other goals, was aimed at tearing down the creaky Central Artery elevated highway and replacing it with an underground road.

After more than a decade, and five years after it was slated to be finished, the Big Dig is still being dug, but most of the project is done.

Southbound lanes of a tunnel routing I-93 underneath downtown Boston opened in December; northbound lanes opened earlier last year.

Also opened last year: a connector that links I-90, or the Massachusetts Turnpike, to the new Ted Williams Tunnel leading to Logan airport. That link provides a speedier, easier trip to and from city and nearby areas than do the old Sumner and Callahan tunnels to the north.

Depending on traffic, the new roads put the airport less than half an hour from downtown and the Back Bay, said Larry Meehan of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Obstacles remain. A southbound lane in the I-93 tunnel near the entrance to Dewey Square Tunnel is expected to be shut well into next year while workers repair the old tunnel. Part of the Central Artery is still being torn down, with traffic frequently being rerouted around the demolition site.

But overall, “a city that was sliced ... is now working on being connected,” Meehan said.

Some of the fill excavated from the Big Dig over the years has been used to cap Spectacle Island, a former landfill that is to open to visitors next month. Part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area, Spectacle is the highest of the 34 islands, affording 360-degree views of downtown Boston and the outer harbor. For more information, call the park at (617) 223-8666 or visit www.bostonislands.com.

Also next month, the $850-million Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the largest such facility in the Northeast, is scheduled to open in South Boston. It will host some ancillary events for the July 26-29 Democratic National Convention, which will be held at the city’s FleetCenter. For more information about visiting Boston, go to www.bostonusa.com.