Big Dig "metal tie was anchored in the concrete ceiling with epoxy"

[kurth]

Officials examine tunnel collapse; criminal probe launched
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent | July 11, 2006

Gov. Mitt Romney this afternoon moved to remove Matthew J. Amorello as chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority after a tunnel ceiling partially collapsed Monday night, killing a woman in a passing car. “People should not have to drive through the turnpike with their fingers crossed,” Romney said at 2 p.m. press conference.

"He is secretive and resists oversight of his own board,'' Romney said, adding that Amorello has acted "contrary to the interests'' of taxpayers, bondholders and motorists. "What happened last night of course is unacceptable,'' Romney said. Romney made the announcement as officials continued to examine the wreckage in the tunnel. The news came hours after Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly launched a criminal probe into the incident...

Several of the 40-by-20-foot concrete slabs fell at about 11 p.m. when a metal tie back gave way, killing Milena Del Valle, 38, of Jamaica Plain, police said. Her husband Angel Del Valle, 46, managed to crawl out of the crumpled car and was treated at Massachusetts General Hospital for minor injuries and released around 4 a.m.

The metal tie was anchored in the concrete ceiling with epoxy, but not affixed to a metal support rail, as was done with ceiling panels in other tunnels, including those on Interstate 93 and other sections of I-90...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/07/11/state_police_identify_victim_in_tunnel_collapse?p1=MEWell_Pos5

[northzax]

1. ok, I don't want to be stereotypical or anything

but who put an Italian in Boston in charge of a construction project? Especially one as mob-ridden as this one?

[MADem]

4. Just one of the bastards indicted on the concrete charge had an Italian

surname, so stereotypical statements don't really apply:

Indicted were: former general manager Robert Prosperi, 63, of Lynnfield; Marc Blais, 36, of Lynn, a dispatch manager; John Farrar, 42, of Canterbury, Conn., a dispatch manager; Gerard McNally, 53, of Rockland, a quality control manager; Gregory Stevenson, 53, of Furlong, Pa., district operations manager; and Keith Thomas, 50, of Billerica, a dispatch manager.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/04/national/main1586157.shtml

[MADem]

2. Super glue, duct tape, just slap it together....

Here's my question.

Why have concrete tiles weighing TONS overhead, when they aren't structurally necessary??? Why not use a lighter material? Even if the goal was fireproofing, they would be better off using ceramics or something of that nature....

[Hubert Flottz]

3. In a word...

CHEAP! Precast concrete is the cheapest way...

[survivor999]

6. I'm sure that Air Force 1 has first rate tape

to hold it together... :)

[bluedeminredstate]

5. Not that the old way through Boston

was all that great, but this is just a gigantic buzzard fuck - a pre-Iraq money pitt for the tax payer and big winning slot machine for the contractors. It's so huge and complicated, and smack dab in the middle of the city and the biggest amount of traffic going in and out to two interstate hghways, I can't imagine how they'll fix this. Unlike Iraq, this was necessary, but bet your ass the corruption and fuck-ups will get more press than messing up a whole country.
Boston traffic is so bad - there's no where to expand - I feel bad for what this will do to the people of the city, my cousins among them.
As for this poor woman...what a tragedy. I hope her husband sues the shit out of the whole lot of goons who made this mess.

[survivor999]

7. This was necessary, but it did not do much good

in terms of traffic, when you look at it carefully. Probably, some serious public transportation plan (e.g., parking lots outside the city) would have been better.

[MADem]

10. Actually, the depressed central artery is GREAT

And the Ted Williams tunnel, where this business happened, is GREAT too. It is SO much easier to get to Logan now--it is way faster to transit the city enroute to the south or north, and the traffic flow is usually pretty respectable. As someone who suffered for many years schlepping back and forth on that central artery (and that was before the traffic was even as bad as it got at the worst) I LIKE the Tip Tunnel, and the Ted as well.

What is NOT acceptable is shit falling on one's head. One death of this nature is one too many. They need to fix this, make sure it won't happen again, and pay that family some compensation.

And fucking Mitt Romney needs to stop making it a personal vendetta. He prances in, from yet ANOTHER vacation, and starts spouting and demanding heads on plates. It ain't ABOUT him. It's about a dead woman and a crime scene--he needs to wait until the investigation is complete before he starts trying to play for political advantage...

He'd better watch his ass, he could find out the cause of the incident was perpetuated by one of his big campaign contributors, and he got a LOAD of dough from BIG DIG companies....

[JuniperLea]

8. What? No bailing wire?

This is unacceptable. Our levees, bridges, roads, tunnels are all falling apart... and we spend a billion a week to fight an illegal war...

Who is running this country anyway? A bunch of crazy monkeys?

Oh... wait...

[MadHound]

9. And the 800 pound gorilla in the room rears its ugly head

How many more ties were "secured" like this one? How many tons of substandard concrete were poured, and now have to be torn out and replaces? Is the rebar at the proper spacing, or did the contractors skimp on that too, and place them at twice the minimal spacing?

All of these, and more, questions all boil down to the fact that after twenty three years of construction, and 14.7 billion dollars spent, Bostonians are left with a transportation system that they can't trust not to give way, killing and injuring them.

And frankly, if I lived in Boston, I wouldn't drive any section that was built. Floods, collapses, and now death. This is outrageous. The only logical solution for this mess is to rip it all out and rebuild it. But hell, that could very well be a cure that is worse than the problem. So what you are left with is a huge white elephant of a transportation system, and a traffic grid that is getting ever more crowded. How many Bostonians are going to go home via the Dig tonight? I'm sure significantly fewer than last night.

I'm sorry for the people of Boston and MA. They have been royally screwed, and are having to pay through the nose for it. Hopefully they can come up with a solution that will both alleviate their traffic problems, and restore people's confidence that the Big Dig won't kill them at any given time.

[kath]

14. Actually, we ALL had to pay through the nose for this debacle, since much

of the funding come from FEDERAL highway funds. Billions of dollars.
Your tax dollars at work.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff...that's BECHTEL !!

"Amorello said the contractor was Modern Continental. Representatives of that company and project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Tuesday."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/11/bigdigdeath.ap/index.html

[onethatcares]

12. hmmm,

bechtel/parsons brinkerhoff, which name stands out among those three?

[Freedom_Aflaim]

13. They should have used chicken wire to hold up the concrete

and have someone put their foot on it make sure its solid