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Big Dig, Little Safety

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from: Timothy Noah

Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006, at 8:05 PM ET

On the evening of July 10, a 38-year-old woman named Milena Del Valle was driving to Boston's Logan airport when 10 concrete ceiling panels fell from the ceiling of an underground traffic tunnel and killed her. The tunnel is part of the spanking-new tunnel complex created by the Big Dig, the most expensive public works project undertaken in United States history. The tunnels, completed last year, will allow Boston to lay out parkland and broad boulevards where for half a century a hideous elevated six-lane highway scarred one of the nation's loveliest urban landscapes. The Big Dig already has eased a nightmarish rush hour traffic snarl--or rather, it did so until the falling panels caused a significant portion of the underground complex to be closed. But the $15 billion price tag for the project does not appear to have bought the city adequate safety for people driving the newly buried highway.

The ceiling panels, which weigh 3 tons, are held up by anchor bolts sealed with epoxy glue. This is a reasonably common construction method, but it has caused structural problems elsewhere, and its application on the tunnel project was not, it turns out, uncontroversial. We know that because on July 26 the Boston Globe and Boston Herald published stories revealing the existence of two separate memos that flagged problems while construction was still underway. The Globe's memo was written in 1999 by John Keaveney, a safety officer at Modern Continental Construction Co., a major Big Dig contractor, to a senior project manager. It reads, in part:

I am to assume that at this juncture the epoxy method...[being] presently utilized is approved by Bechtel/Parsons [another major Big Dig contractor], however my concerns are for the long-term risks posed by utilizing this method .... Should any innocent State Worker or member of the Public be seriously injured or even worse killed as a result, I feel that this would be something that would reflect Mentally and Emotionally upon me, and all who are trying to construct a quality Project .... I feel I need to pass on what everyone down here appears to be thinking.

The Globe, unfortunately, has published only excerpts of the two-page memo. "We are not releasing the Keveaney memo now," Carolyn Ryan, the Globe's assistant managing editor for metropolitan news, e-mailed me after the article's author, Sean P. Murphy, directed me her way. The paper "may [release it] in the future." Ryan did not answer my followup e-mail asking why the Globe is witholding the memo.

[Update, July 31: The Boston-based media critic Dan Kennedy suggests the Globe may have witheld the document because it was starting to doubt its authenticity. On July 29 stories in the Globe and the Herald reported that Modern Continental has been unable to locate Keaveney's memo, and that Keaveney's complaints in the memo appear to predate the work he was criticizing. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Massachusetts attorney general's office are investigating the matter.]

The Herald's memo (click here to read the story by Casey Ross and Dave Wedge; be warned, you have to pay) transcribes the minutes of a meeting held in January 2000 in which project officials discussed problems with the epoxy used to secure the ceiling anchors. It appears below and on the following two pages. To read my footnotes, roll your mouse over the portions highlighted in yellow.

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i.e., the Big Dig. The Central Artery, also known as the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway, is the elevated highway that the new tunnels replace. John F. Fitzgerald, a.k.a. "Honey Fitz," was mayor of Boston and father to Rose Kennedy, matriarch of the political dynasty.
A board of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority charged with refereeing disagreements related to Big Dig contracts.
hot document
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123
from: Timothy Noah

Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006, at 8:05 PM ET
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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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