New Boston Big Dig woes

[KRonn]

I'm sorry that you all had to help finance this monstrosity.      Now the Massachusetts officials in charge are looking like Keystone Cops - again. New questions being asked about the department that is administering the daily operation of these tunnels.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2011_0318no_light_shed_on_reports_binspection_records_not_foundb/srvc=home&position=0

No light shed on reports
Inspection records not found

Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan put out a 2009 directive ordering yearly inspections of the overhead light casings that line the Big Dig tunnels — yet he was unable to produce any records of those check-ups just a day after his bombshell bul- letin that a 110-pound fixture crashed onto the roadway Feb. 8.

In a 2009 memo obtained by the Herald, Mullan, then the newly annointed chief of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, ordered his staff to inspect the 23,000 light fixtures in Big Dig tunnels every year. He also ordered that those inspections be stored in a computerized database.

Asked last night whether the tunnel lights were inspected per his orders prior to the Feb. 8 incident, Mullan said he believed so, but couldn't say for certain.

"I don't have the inspection reports in front of me to say yes or no. I assume that there is a report of the ceiling components consistent with that policy. But we will have to look at it," Mullan told the Herald. "That is not within my knowledge level, but we will get the reports to you."

Acting Highway Administrator Frank Tramontozzi also said he believed the inspections had taken place. Yet transportation officials were unable to find any record of those reports last night after searching for six hours.

Instead they provided a blank "structural inspection field report" that requires workers to check a box and confirm that they've made a visual tunnel light inspection.

The Herald reported yesterday that Patrick administration officials were drawing fire from engineering experts and lawmakers for keeping the public in the dark for five weeks after a 110-pound light fixture crashed near the entrance of the Interstate 93 northbound tunnel during a morning commute.

Transportation workers found and repaired almost 350 rusted light casings before Mullan announced the Feb. 8 incident Wednesday.

After defending his decision to hold off alerting commuters to the potential peril, Mullan backtracked yesterday, say- ing, "Knowing what I know now, I would have made a different judgment.

"When we are dealing with the Central Artery Tunnel Project . . . there is a heightened awareness. And there is demand on the part of many people to know."

Mullan added that he also regretted waiting until Tuesday before informing Gov. Deval Patrick, who was then in Great Britain on the last leg of a 10-day trade junket.

Mary Z. Connaughton, a Big Dig watchdog and former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board member, questioned why documentation that Mullan himself required is so hard to find.

"There should be a clear trail that shows the inspection, who did the inspection, and who signed off on it — and it should be in a database so it's easy to find," Connaughton said.

"The very fact that it's difficult to locate these important records raises serious questions and it eats away at the public's confidence. With the Big Dig, it's so important for the public to be confident in the product, and they've been let down time and time again."

The crashed lighting fixture was just the latest in a long line of mishaps and tragedies that have befallen the seemingly jinxed $20 billion Big Dig.

In 2006, Jamaica Plain mom Milena Del Valle was crushed to death when a 3-ton ceiling tile in the Interstate 90 tunnel dropped on her car.

Several other deaths and grisly dismemberments have been linked to razor-sharp handrails inside Big Dig tunnels. And the entire underground roadway has been beset by hundreds of leaks that have flooded roadways.

The manufacturer of the light fixtures, NuART, did not return multiple calls for comment yesterday. State officials sent NuART a letter Wednesday alerting the company to problems with corroding aluminum support casings and seeking to recoup damages.

Mullan said yesterday he's also changed the lighting inspection policy and now requires a hands-on check of the light fixtures in the tunnel.

[Caliga]

Hm, I see that all the surnames are Italian and Irish... pretty much a guarantee that the management will continue to be inept, drunk, or both.

[KRonn]

23,000 light fixtures all need to be inspected; they've done 350, if we can believe they have a clue on how many have been inspected. Who knows if the lights will all have to be replaced! Throw more good money after bad. 

Priced at $2 billion when first proposed; cost was at least $16 billion when finished, and probably more now. They should have raised the city instead, as one former local radio commentator used to say. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

I see great things ahead.

[Strix]

Berkut: Damn lazy and incompetent Public Sector workers!

[jimmy olsen]

Several other deaths and grisly dismemberments have been linked to razor-sharp handrails inside Big Dig tunnels.

WTF? First I've heard of this, how the hell is it possible to fuck up a handrail that much?

[KRonn]

Several other deaths and grisly dismemberments have been linked to razor-sharp handrails inside Big Dig tunnels.

WTF? First I've heard of this, how the hell is it possible to fuck up a handrail that much?

Yeah, I was surprised to see that too. First I've heard. I'm wondering if that item may have been taken out of context in the  reporting or something, hopefully.   

[HisMajestyBOB]

Several other deaths and grisly dismemberments have been linked to razor-sharp handrails inside Big Dig tunnels.

WTF? First I've heard of this, how the hell is it possible to fuck up a handrail that much?

Where there's a government contractor, there's a way!

[DGuller]

It was badly put.  It's not that handrails were literally razor-sharp, it's just that handrails in general are a lethal threat to car or bike occupants if they strike it.  At high speeds, the vertical poles supporting the handrails act like cheese grater.  After Googling, it turns out that the problem was that handrails were installed too low, exposing the cars and bike riders to them in case of an accident.

[KRonn]

It was badly put.  It's not that handrails were literally razor-sharp, it's just that handrails in general are a lethal threat to car or bike occupants if they strike it.  At high speeds, the vertical poles supporting the handrails act like cheese grater.  After Googling, it turns out that the problem was that handrails were installed too low, exposing the cars and bike riders to them in case of an accident.

That makes a lot more sense.

On that same note, on roads in general. I notice that on the side of roads some guard rails begin with a curve away from the road, I think to prevent an approaching car going off the road from being impaled on it. While others are just straight on where they begin, which looks awfully dangerous if a car were to veer into it in an accident. I thought I had read somewhere that guards rails that are curved inward were done like that to prevent worse accidents, so I'm surprised to see the other types even in new construction.

[DGuller]

Yes, exposed guardrail ends can easily cut a car in half, so they always have to be protected in some way, either by curving away or by a bunch of barrels with water.  Even hitting a normal guardrail can be dangerous, since the rail can break and expose you to the same kind of accident as hitting the end of the rail would.  However, they usually protect you from hitting something like a tree or a steep drop, so they're the lesser of two evils.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I like how the gubbermint signed off on the work so the contractors just get their overinflated paychecks and walk away.  Slick.

[The Brain]

Have Americans ever done anything right?

[HisMajestyBOB]

Have Americans ever done anything right?

Not since Eisenhower.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Have Americans ever done anything right?

They certainly seem to have got themselves into a hole this time