1999 Big Dig memo: Public could be "seriously injured or killed"

[kurth]

Report: Memo Warned About Big Dig Bolts

BOSTON (AP) -- Seven years before falling concrete crushed a motorist to death inside one of Boston's Big Dig tunnels, a safety officer warned that the bolts could not possibly hold the heavy ceiling panels, according to a bluntly worded memo leaked to a newspaper.

John Keaveney wrote the memo in 1999 to one of his superiors at contractor Modern Continental Construction Co., saying he could not ''comprehend how this structure can withhold the test of time.''

''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,'' he wrote, according to a story Wednesday in The Boston Globe, whose reporter was mailed a copy of the memo.

He told the Globe that it was a skeptical third-grade youngster who really caused him to doubt the safety of the tunnel. Since the accident July 10, other documents have come out showing that there were questions over the years about the reliability of the ceiling bolts. But Keaveney's memo is one of the bluntest and most emotional warnings to come to light. And Keaveney was the safety officer directly responsible for the tunnel where the accident took place...

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Big-Dig.html

[Tanuki]

1. But but but....

"In an interview with the Globe, Keaveney said his superiors at Modern Continental and representatives from Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff assured him that such a system had been tested and was proven to work."

Hmmm, somebody better go check all the work Bechtel got no-bid contracts to carry out in Iraq....

[MadMaddie]

2. This is huge...

Bechtel is probably cutting corners on their contracts in the middle East...if it is found that the Big Dig is so flawed that it will have to be destroyed or major rework has to be done to make it safe (may not be worth the cost)

then it may signal that other major work that they have done is flawed...

Heads should roll and the owners and the contractors should get long sentences....