Inspectors missed fatal flaw
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Updated: 07:18 AM EST

Despite warning signs during construction, state and federal inspectors and Big Dig manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff’s own experts failed to catch a lurking instability in a tunnel ceiling whose sudden collapse Monday killed a Boston woman and sparked an expansive criminal probe.

    Construction records show project overseers approved nearly $500,000 worth of changes in 2004 to improve ceiling supports in the area surrounding the section that gave way near the entrance to the Ted Williams Tunnel. But numerous government and private inspectors apparently missed problems above the tunnel that caused 12 tons of concrete to crash down on one of the state’s busiest highways.

    Big Dig officials said yesterday the supports that anchored 3-ton concrete slabs above the tunnel were inspected in 1999 or 2000 and reviewed again before it opened in 2003. The ceiling and its support system were due for a re-inspection this year.

    “Before we open the I-90 tunnel to traffic, we will take every measure to ensure the public safety,” embattled Big Dig boss Matthew Amorello said yesterday. He would not discuss records being reviewed to determine whether construction changes contributed to the collapse and whether inspectors noted any potential defects.

    A 1998 state Inspector General’s report warned of problems in a different section of the I-90 connector tunnel with ceiling support systems similar to the one that gave way Monday. But Pike officials say systems installed after that report passed independent safety tests.

    A top official with the Federal Highway Administration, which shares oversight responsibility for the $14.6 billion project, said he was “shocked” by Monday’s collapse and is not aware of any other major highway projects where a disaster occurred so soon after the completion of construction.

    “We will do a full and thorough investigation into the engineering aspects of what happened last evening,” said Stanley Gee of the Federal Highway Administration.

    The collapse occurred just months after the inspector general for the Department of Transportation declared the Big Dig tunnels safe despite concerns of widespread defects in the project’s Interstate 93 tunnel. A day after that declaration, debris fell through the I-93 tunnel roof and damaged several vehicles, including an ambulance transporting a patient. Officials with the inspector general’s office declined to comment on Monday’s tunnel collapse.

    Meanwhile, congressmen yesterday called for a sweeping review of the project by outside experts.

    “Anybody who might be considered to have something to hide should not have one ounce of a role into who does this investigation,” said U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Somerville), who serves on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

    Capuano was among legislators in 2005 who listened to several state and federal overseers testify unequivocally that the Big Dig tunnels are safe. The chairman of that committee, Tom Davis (R-Va.), said yesterday. “Now . . . it appears that those experts were wrong and the defects are even more serious than previously believed.”