Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman Matthew Amorello on Thursday informed Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that he would resign his post effective August 15, Reuters reported.

Romney had repeatedly called for Amorello’s resignation or removal from the top job at the authority following a fatal incident in a highway tunnel that is part of the Boston Central Artery project overseen and operated by the authority.

Day-to-day oversight of the Big Dig and inspections and follow-up to prevent further safety problems have since been taken over by the state Department of Transportation, following emergency legislation granting Romney’s executive branch authority to remove those functions from Amorello’s agency.

The embattled director of Boston’s “Big Dig” tunnel program will continue to receive his salary – he is paid $223,000 a year – through February 15, CNN reported.

July 10, a three-ton concrete ceiling panel tore loose from a tunnel and crushed a 38-year-old woman who was a passenger in a vehicle. The Big Dig’s 7.8-mile system of tunnels has been closed to all traffic other than buses since as authorities recheck bolts and other fasteners that affix the heavy concrete panels to the tunnel roofs.

The move came hours before a hearing at which Romney planned to try to remove Amorello from his post.

1999 Memo Questioning Safety Revealed

Questions about the oversight of the controversial project during and after its construction also arose this week when a 1999 memo from the on-site safety officer for the tunnel where the fatality occurred was made public. According to the Boston Globe, Safety Officer John Keaveney raised red flags about the ceiling panels with his superiors at contractor Modern Continental Construction Co., saying he could not “comprehend how this structure can withstand the test of time.”

Keaveney, no longer working for that company, was interviewed by the Globe in recent days and said he was reassured by officials at Modern Continental and project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff that the ceiling-attachment system had been tested and was proven to work.