Report: Speed Trumped Safety on Boston’s Big Dig

Jason Sandefur

The project manager on Boston”s Big Dig tunnel system knew during construction that there were problems with the bolt-and-epoxy system used to hold 4,600-lb.concrete ceiling panels in place, according to Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly.
Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff was aware that five bolts tested during construction subsequently came loose after a ceiling panel was suspended from them, the Associated Press reports.
A public firestorm about the Big Dig has put fasteners in the spotlight following the July 10, 2006, collapse of ceiling panels that killed a 39-year-old woman. The woman”s family has filed a multi-million lawsuit against the main tunnel contractors, along with the fastening system”s distributor, wholesaler and manufacturer.
After the collapse, investigators said 20 bolts had come out of drill holes. Inspectors then found more than 200 faulty bolts throughout the tunnel, which finally reopened in January 2007, AP reports.
“The legacy of the most expensive highway project in U.S. history is being defined not by the underground leaks that plagued it or the quintupling of its price tag to more than $14.6 billion & (but) by the hundreds of bolts, each weighing less than a pound, that were glued into the concrete tunnel roof to hold up the 4,600-pound concrete ceiling panels,” wrote Denise Lavoie of AP.
A review of records and interviews with investigators by AP reporters has found that “the bolts, about 5/8 of an inch in diameter and 6 to 8 inches long, according to various sources, had not been inspected since the tunnel opened to traffic in January 2003.”
In addition, “pressure to finish work while keeping costs low may have clouded contractors” judgment on which materials and methods to use,” Lavoie reported.
Inspections after the collapse showed the bolts had pulled out of drilled holes. Some of the bolts had no epoxy on them, while others had an uneven distribution of epoxy or epoxy that was discolored, according to AP. \ �2007 FastenerNews.com