Two days after the I-90 connector tragedy, answers are starting to surface. Unfortunately, none of them are what you’d want to hear. Given the history of mismanagement surrounding the Big Dig project, it should come as no surprise that problems were discovered as early as 1999, when at least five bolts in the connector failed routine testing.
It may be worth mentioning that these bolts, which anchored the tie rods holding 3-ton panels, were fastened to the ceiling using epoxy glue. Again: epoxy glue. Better yet, preliminary investigations show 60 additional problem areas in the tunnel – that’s and counting - and the connector is closed indefinitely while the powers that be debate how best to proceed. Finger-pointing and blame-laying has already begun in earnest, with project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff staying silent. Embattled Mass Turnpike chair Matthew Amorello refuses to admit defeat, clinging to the shreds of his job even as public sentiment continues to mount against him, and Governor Mitt Romney has returned to the real business – his New Hampshire vacation. Attorney General Tom Reilly is back in the spotlight, conducting investigations, holding press conferences, and trying to downplay the mileage his gubernatorial campaign stands to gain from the media attention. But fear not, fellow citizens, there’s a plan in motion to examine every highway in Massachusetts for construction flaws to ensure, as the refrain goes, that “something like this never happens again”.
image courtesy of Flickr user Ckirkman, via Flickr
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I guess they were a bit hasty in dismantling the old Central Artery....