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Home Front: Tech
"Big Dig" unsafe?
2005-03-15
Brought to you by the Rantburg School of Engineering and GraftThe independent engineering specialist who led an investigation into leaks at the $14.6 billion Big Dig project says he can no longer vouch for the safety of its tunnels. Gov. Mitt Romney responded to the report by saying he would ask the state's highest court if he has the power to fire the chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversees the system of bridges and tunnels that has been plagued for years by cost overruns. "With the Big Dig there's been a pattern of cover-up and stonewalling that has left the public with little confidence that the project is being managed well or that the road and tunnel system are safe to travel," Romney said.

The governor's comments were in response to a letter written to the Turnpike Authority by engineering specialist Jack K. Lemley, who stated he was "unable to express an opinion as to the safety of the I-93 portion of the Central Artery." A copy of the March 9 letter was obtained by The Boston Globe. Romney has previously called for resignation of Turnpike Chairman Matthew Amorello, but the chairman has so far refused. A call to the Turnpike Authority was not immediately returned, but spokesman Doug Hanchett told the Globe that "we believe the tunnels are perfectly safe. If we ever had a reasonable inkling otherwise, we'd close the tunnels."
You mean, right after the collaspe?
The leak-ridden tunnels are the centerpiece of the massive Big Dig highway project, which buried Interstate 93 under downtown Boston and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan International Airport.
They've been digging since Ted Kennedy had his first drink
In September, water broke though a faulty wall panel and flooded the I-93 northbound tunnel, backing up rush-hour traffic for miles. A subsequent investigation headed by Lemley found hundreds of smaller leaks. Lemley told lawmakers in November that there was no public safety risk to people driving through the tunnels.
unless you count drowning as a risk, but enough about Ted....
Since then, Big Dig officials have identified more than 40 sections of tunnel wall with construction defects. Fireproofing material has also fallen after being damaged by leaks.
But there's no risk....
In his letter, Lemley said project officials blocked him from obtaining records and data related to the new problems, including 10 years of field notes from engineers and more recent testing data. He said his change in position was also driven by the apparent lack of any formal plan by Big Dig officials to address the leak problems. Lemley did not immediately return a phone call on Tuesday. Romney stopped short of calling the tunnels unsafe and said he will continue to drive through them. "I don't feel as safe in the tunnels today as I did yesterday," Romney said. "If (Lemley) doesn't know if the tunnels are safe then I don't either and that's intolerable."
Posted by:Steve

#15  They should've moved the MTA offices into a side tunnel ....
Posted by: AzCat   2005-03-15 11:39:18 PM  

#14  Ahhh... Frank! Civil, myself, but not structural. So you know tunnels leak. The (self-named) inventor of the New Austrian Tunneling Method once told me "You can not waterproof a tunnel, you can only control the water"
Posted by: Bobby   2005-03-15 10:27:07 PM  

#13  exactly, Bobby - I'm a licensed engineer: civil with structural specialty, and nobody in their right minds gets tolerances that close, usually 1.5 to 3 safety factors, minimum - I actually think they should go at the engineers first (who are probably not at fault) and they'll show where the suits and contractors cheated and skimped, happily
Posted by: Frank G   2005-03-15 9:52:08 PM  

#12  Since it takes one to know one, I supspect the engineers were conservative - they always are. Someone in management might have over-rode them, like the Challanger catastrophe.
Posted by: Bobby   2005-03-15 9:43:07 PM  

#11  Why bite the hand that feed you? The taxpayer!

We all paid for this so why not hit us for more money? You have the fox in charge of the hen house

Agree??

Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson   2005-03-15 9:38:39 PM  

#10  # 8 Classical liberal- Right on about the Chinese!

Andrea Jackson
Posted by: Andrea Jackson   2005-03-15 9:37:15 PM  

#9  guarantee responsible engineering took a back seat to other concerns. IMHO The responsible engineers should lose (for at least 5 yrs?) their licenses, and their higher-ups should go to prison, including the colluding contractor and politicians
Posted by: Frank G   2005-03-15 8:19:01 PM  

#8  Even the Chinese would build this kind of project with better engineering and less corruption.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2005-03-15 7:52:57 PM  

#7  Politics and construction projects. A BAD MIX.

Here is another "civil" project, done between 1173 and 1350 which had less than desirable results :

Posted by: BigEd   2005-03-15 5:06:20 PM  

#6  I hear they're going to start the Regatta in the Liberty Tunnel this year...
Posted by: Raj   2005-03-15 4:57:03 PM  

#5  I don't think anybody is warning of a structural failure of the tunnel.

The risk may be that many of the joints between the structural members would leak and the electricity for the lighting in the tunnel would fail.
Posted by: mhw   2005-03-15 4:40:19 PM  

#4  As someone who travels back and forth to Logan Airport almost weekly there are a couple of things to which I can attest:

1) For a brand new tunnel system they spend an awful lot of time fixing things...
2) The sections through South Boston (most of it) were carefully engineered to maximise the revenue to the Boston Mafia headed up by James "Whitey" Bulger whose brother Billy was the head of the Mass Senate before being given the sinecure as President of UMass. This job Romney managed to force him out of after he took the 5th at US Senate hearings about his mudering, FBI corrupting brother.
3) Mass politics and Boston in particular is so Democrat controlled (despite the run of RINO governors) that corruption is unopposed and the few Republicans seem more than happy to go along.
Posted by: AlanC   2005-03-15 4:29:10 PM  

#3  Sunday's "Tale of The Big Dig" was driving over the lovely Zakim Bridge while being bombarded by the giant chunks of ice from the last snowstorm that were falling off of it and onto the cars 100 feet on the roadway below.
The man who pushed real hard to get this thing here was the legendary "Friend of the Working Man" Tip O'Neill, who never met a government buck he didn't want a piece of and who leaned hard on Reagan to sign the papers for the Federal backing. There was real serious talk about naming the tunnel after him by the local Dem hacks but, funny thing, you don't hear that idea "floated" much anymore.
Posted by: tu3031   2005-03-15 4:15:25 PM  

#2  As the Big Dig neared completion, the question was raised as to what to name the thing. One wag suggested "The American Taxpayer" Tunnel, since that's who's paying (and paying and paying) for it.
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-03-15 3:50:54 PM  

#1  I left Boston in December of 1992 just as the Logan tunnel project was getting underway. There were problems with that as well (one of which was the mud being dredged from the bottom of Boston Harbour was contaminated waste and couldn't be dumped just anywhere) but not on the scale of The Big Dig. Teddy Kennedy scores another financial windfall for his cronies in Massachusetts but isn't held the least bit accountable. I really wish someone would ask him some very tough questions about this. I swear if I ever get the chance to piss on his leg like he's been pissing on the American taxpayers all these years I won't hesitate.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-03-15 3:43:38 PM  

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