the Big Dig in Boston is a $ 14 billion-plus project to bury major roads underground in downtown Boston. two companies - bechtel and Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB)-manage the 20-year project,which is $1.6 billion over budget. the two companies will likely collect in excess of $120 million in fixed fees for their work on the project-not including reimbursements for overhead costs. Bechtel and PB have many projects underway at any one time and many common fixed costs. These common fixed costs are not actually caused by the Big Dig project and yet portions of these costs have been claimed as reimbursable expenses."Bechtel and PB say they don't collect a penny more for overhead than they are entitled to." A Bechtel spokesman says, "Our allocation of overhead [on the Big Dig] is rigorously audited..." This is undoutedly true; in practice,fixed common costs are routinely (and arbitrarily) allocated to segments for cost reimbursement and other purposes. Managers at Bechtel, PB, and other companies argue that someone must pay for these costs. While this too is true, who actually pays for these costs will depend on how the common fixed costs are arbitrarily allocated among segments. Massachusetts has lodged a number of complaints concerning Bechtel's cost recovery claims. Such complaints are almost inevitable when common fixed costs are allocated to segments It might be better to simply set an all-inclusive fixed fee up front with no cost recovery and hence no issues concerning what costs are really at-tributable to the project.