Big Dig Firms Agree To Multi-Million Dollar Settlement

Jason Sandefur

Big Dig project manager Bechtel / Parsons Brinckerhoff has agreed to a $407 million settlement with the state of Massachusetts, acknowledging that it failed to adequately investigate the 1999 failure of five epoxy bolts that eventually led to the July 2006 fatal ceiling collapse, the Associated Press reports.
Powers Fasteners, which manufactured the epoxy blamed for the tunnel collapse, is the only company charged in the incident. Powers Fasteners has pleaded not guilty.
The Bechtel agreement allows the consortium to avoid both a civil trial and criminal charges. The firm reportedly was paid more than $2 billion for its work on the Big Dig.
Under the settlement, more than 20 smaller companies agreed to pay about $51 million collectively for their involvement in the Boston tunnel system.
Powers Fasteners, who has agreed to pay the victim’s family about $6 million, remains the only company that has settled with the family.
“Obviously, this [$407 million settlement] is out of Powers’ price range,” Powers attorney Max Stern told AP. “The sheer size of this settlement underlines what we think is the undeniable fact that Bechtel bears the real responsibility for this accident. After all, Bechtel was responsible for the design, it was responsible for the construction and it was responsible for the inspection of the tunnel, and yet, it escapes all criminal charges.”
By singling out Powers Fasteners, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s assessment of the case contradicts a National Transportation Safety Board report that spread broad blame for the ceiling collapse.
An NTSB investigation concluded that designers and construction crews had not considered that the epoxy holding 5/8″ diameter threaded steel anchor rods embedded about five inches in the tunnel’s concrete roof could creep under load. The NTSB specifically faulted ceiling designer Gannett Fleming for failing to stipulate which kind of epoxy to use during installation. �2008 FastenerNews.com