The Big Dig's Big Day

After 14 years, and $14.8 billion, the Big Dig is finally completed. Five people were killed in the sprawling construction of the Central Artery Tunnel, including Milena Del Valle, who was killed July 2006 when a ceiling panel within the tunnel fell, crushing her to death. Her family settled with the company that produced the defective epoxy fastener, Powers Fasteners, for $6 million. Manslaughter charges are still pending against the company, along with Parsons Brinkenhoff and Betchel, who were the primary contractors on the project.

Officially, Dec. 31 marks the end of the joint venture that teamed megaproject contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to build the dizzying array of underground highways, bridges, ramps and a new tunnel under Boston Harbor — all while the city remained open for business.

The project was so complex it's been likened to performing open heart surgery on a patient while the patient is wide awake.

Some didn't know if they'd live to see it end.

Enza Merola had a front row seat on the Big Dig from the front window of her pastry shop — stacked neatly with tiramisu, sfogliatelle and brightly colored Italian cookies — in Boston's North End.

During the toughest days of the project, the facade of Marie's Pastry Shop, named after her sister, was obscured from view. The only way customers could find the front door was along a treacherous path through heavy construction.

"For a while we thought we weren't going to make it," Merola said. "But you know, we hung in there."

The Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project — as the Big Dig is officially known — has its roots in the construction of the hulking 1950's era elevated Central Artery that cut a swath through the center of Boston, lopping off the waterfront from downtown and casting a shadow over some of the city's oldest neighborhoods.

On Congress and the Congressional Big Dig

The Corner writes:

Anybody who has walked by the east side of the Capitol in the last few years knows that there's a big construction project going on. It's for an underground visitors center. Here's the shocking news: It's costing far more than originally planned and taking years longer than expected to complete . . . . If Congress cannot properly oversee a project that's taking place in its own backyard—literally!—then how can it oversee anything?

Good question. The project they're talking about is the new Vistor's Center to the US Capitol building.

It was first meant to be opened in 2005, but the opening date has been repeatedly pushed back and the cost overruns have meant that the price tag has doubled.

Now, some of the reasons for the cost increase are reasonable - in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the need to add security screening facilities became that much more apparent and the facility needed to handle a larger number of people. All visitors to the Capitol would be screened in this facility.

However, some costs make little sense. Congress wanted to have more conference and office space, and when it comes to outfitting Congressional space, no expense is spared. Those are places that would not be generally accessible to the public.

Among the facilities included are:

Congress appropriated funding to outfit the space in 2001. The designs were completed in 2003, and work began in 2005.

The House got, among other things, a regal two-story hearing room in its wing, said D. Rodman Henderer, a senior vice president with the Baltimore architectural firm RTKL, which designed the center.

The Senate wanted a series of small hearing rooms on its side, along with a huge TV-radio studio, complete with makeup facilities, for senators to create messages they could send to constituents, Henderer said.

I find it curious that among those supporting this expenditure are Mary Landrieu (D-LA), whose home state is still suffering from the after effects of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes. Did she not think that saving money in one place (like in Congress' own backyard) could be used to fund programs in her home state? No, she, like most members of Congress think that revenue from taxpayers is a piggy bank that never ends. She and the other members of Congress benefit the most from the profligate spending and taxpayer interests are a distant concern.

I've seen this before. John Miller thinks this reminds him of Boston's Big Dig. I have another program that is similarly bloated and plagued by cost overruns. Can you say Secaucus Transfer?

I knew you could.

That project was originally given a price tag of $250 million to link nearly all NJ Transit lines in one place and serve as a hub for new retail and office construction. Instead, the facility is underutilized, no retail or office construction has taken place, and the price tag still isn't entirely clear - the estimates range from $450 million to $750 million and more - not counting what debt payments taxpayers are on the hook for.

Government agencies, and the federal government itself, does not always act with the best interests of taxpayers in mind. They engage in profligate spending on projects of dubious need - the Bridge to Nowhere comes to mind.

At this point, the spending will continue until someone in Congress demands accountability or the project is eventually completed.

Big Dig Reopens To Drivers

Six months after a section of roof collapsed on a car killing a passenger and forced the closure of one of the most expensive transportation projects in the United States, the Central Arterial Tunnel, aka the Big Dig, has reopened.

The eastbound lanes of the Interstate 90 connector tunnel had been closed since the July 10 collapse, which killed Milena Del Valle, 38.

The tunnel was reopened after inspectors approved repairs in which workers installed a bracket-and-hanger system to support the concrete ceiling panels.

With the reopening, just one tunnel remains shut down: a high-occupancy-vehicle lane that is still undergoing repairs.

The original hanging system was inspected and it was determined that a very large percentage of the brackets were not installed correctly. The bonding between the hangers and the concrete roof was insufficient to carry the weight of the ceiling panels.

There had been questions as to whether the ceiling panels were even necessary and whether there was proper oversight in the inspection process or whether quality control was enforced. Those questions are still being investigated as the costs associated with the $14.7 billion project continue to accumulate.

Big Dig Spawn of Fake But Accurate

A memo written by a Big Dig safety officer warning superiors at his construction company that parts of a tunnel ceiling could collapse appears to be a fake, the company said Wednesday.

The memo is dated May 17, 1999, and bears the signature of John J. Keaveney. It raised several concerns about the safety of the bolt-and-epoxy ceiling design in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel where a woman was killed July 10 when ceiling panels fell on her car.

The bolt-and-epoxy system has been the focus of the investigation into the collapse in the $14.6 billion highway project.

The memo was highlighted by the Boston Globe, which thought it scooped the Boston Herald, which produced a 2000 memo that relates substantially the same concerns. The Globe has been backtracking ever since the discrepancies began popping up in their 1999 memo. The memos were from Modern Continental, which is the contractor involved in building this particular feature of the Big Dig. Jay Tea at Wizbang has the details.

The Big Mess

As investigators continue to look for problems in the Big Dig, they uncover them at every turn. Nearly every single hanger, like the one that failed resulting in the death of Milena Del Valle while she and her husband were driving through the CAT, was found to be unreliable.

At the same time, Big Dig officials became so confident in the epoxy used to secure the bolt fixtures that they canceled laboratory tests to regularly check if the high-strength glue was working properly, according to documents obtained by the Globe yesterday.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and lead management contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff approved both decisions as the tunnel ceiling was built in 1999.

The massive investigation into last week's death of Milena Del Valle -- killed when concrete ceiling panels fell on her car -- has focused on the failure of the bolt-and-epoxy ceiling fixtures. Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that tests completed over the weekend found that nearly all 1,150 bolt-and-epoxy ceiling fixtures in the I-90 connector tunnel were unreliable.

As the connector tunnel ceiling was under construction, Modern Continental Corp. workers expressed concerns after field tests indicated the bolt fixtures were unsound, law enforcement officials said.

There are reasons that those tests were required in the first place - to insure that the structure was sound. That they were cancelled shows that assumptions are the mother of all screwups. The engineers and designers on the Big Dig project assumed that everything was being built up to spec (if indeed the spec was sufficient in the first place) and that there weren't ongoing problems with the materials.

We have known for quite some time that there were problems with quality control in many areas of the project - water infiltration being the most serious to this point. Now, we have to wonder whether there are problems with other systems throughout the $14.6 billion project. How many millions more will be spent on this project, and how many millions will be lost by businesses affected by the traffic nightmare created by this problem.

UPDATE:
Gov. Romney says its worse than previously imagined. No kidding. He's putting a plan to deal with the situation in motion, including adding additional anchors for the roof sections of the type that collapsed.

Disturbing Finds in Post Mortem on Big Dig Failure

Investigators have found that the problems with the tie back system in the ceiling, similar to the one that failed and resulted in the death of Milena Delvalle and badly injured her husband, is more widespread than first believed:

Michael Lewis, the project director for the Big Dig, said inspectors have found at least 60 areas in the tunnel where bolts appear to be loose, gaps exist, or other parts of the ceiling system seem “compromised.”

In addition, the Massachusetts attorney general said that problems with ceiling anchor bolts in the tunnel had been identified in 1999, when the ceiling was built, and that his office is investigating to see whether a plan to correct those problems was carried out.

“This is a massive failure, far beyond the events of Monday night,” said the attorney general, Thomas F. Reilly.

Matthew J. Amorello, chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, ordered an evaluation of the entire highway system in the Boston area, even roads and tunnels that are not part of the Big Dig.

Mr. Reilly, a Democratic candidate for governor, said that as investigators examine the ceiling tiles that are being removed from the tunnel for inspection, “you can visually see some of these problems, you can see some loosening of those anchor bolts, and you can see some anchor bolt systems in places where they are not designed to be.”

Modern Continental built the section that failed in 1999. They've got some explaining to do, as does Bechtel Corporation and Parsons Brinckerhoff, who were the project managers. God only knows how much more this engineering mess will cost the taxpayers of Massachusetts, not to mention the costs to fix safety problems discovered in a more thorough examination that could jeopardize the public.

UPDATE:
And the mess keeps getting worse. Inspectors have quadrupled the number of problem anchors discovered.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority said inspectors found additional bolt assemblies that were separating from 3-ton concrete roof panels, raising the number of defects over previous inspections that found 60 defects. The earlier defects were enough for officials to order a sweeping review of every roadway, tunnel and bridge in Boston's entire highway system.

Michael Lewis, director of the Big Dig, said inspectors found 68 suspect bolt assemblies over the westbound lanes of a connector tunnel providing the main route to Logan Airport. Forty-five more were discovered in a lane carrying carpool traffic, as well as 69 in ramps connecting two interstate highways.

Legislative leaders expressed support for Romney's plan to give the governor authority over when to reopen the tunnel, which has been closed for three days.

The CAT is the primary highway through the heart of Boston. There are no other alternatives - streets can only handle a fraction of traffic.

The panels provided a dropped ceiling to assist in ventilation, but experts have questioned whether they needed to be so heavy. As the tunnel continues to undergo inspection, authorities are considering whether it would be feasible to remove the ceiling panels and leave the large fans above them exposed indefinitely.

The Big Dig's Big Mess

A 40 foot section of ceiling tiles of the Big Dig tunnel under Boston failed, collapsing on top of a car killing its driver, Milena Delvalle.

A steel tieback that held the 40-foot ceiling section in place over Interstate 90 eastbound gave way, Authority Chairman Matthew Amorello said. Milena Delvalle, 38, of Jamaica Plain, was pronounced dead at the scene.

In the immediate aftermath, large slabs sloped down the tunnel wall and across a lane of the roadway.

"There was a snapping sound heard," Amorello said at an early morning news conference Tuesday. "One of the tile panels from the roof released. It caused a series of panels to be released."

Amorello ordered both sides of the highway section closed for immediate inspections of similar panels. He called in a team from the Federal Highway Administration to assist.

The Central Arterial Tunnel, aka the Big Dig, cost $14.6 billion dollars and continues to cost taxpayers not only in their wallets, but with their lives. There are ongoing legal battles over shoddy workmanship and water problems throughout the tunnel system.

UPDATE:
Who's writing the headlines at the NYT?

Woman Killed in Boston Big Dig Tunnel Fall

Tunnel Fall? That makes it sound like the woman fell in the tunnel. The frickin' tunnel collapsed on this woman's vehicle as she was driving through the tunnel. And people wonder why the media is held is such low regard. Perhaps the inability to describe basic facts and convey stories accurately might have something to do with the problem. That goes for headlines as well as the bodies of the articles run by the Times and other media outlets.

The Big Fix

CNN is reporting that President Bush has announced a plan to spend $3.1 billion on repairs and strengthening of New Orleans levee system.

Okay. The devil is in the details as any of my faithful readers know. How and why some of the levees failed is still under investigation. Sonar readings that indicated that some piles weren't driven to the proper depth were contradicted by the Corps pulling some of the piles and found that they were, in fact, driven to the proper depth. It calls into question whether the levees were not designed to withstand the forces that were intended by the designers. There's still the possibility that substandard materials and failures of oversight that contributed to the failures.

All this has an impact on repairing and strengthening the levees. What sorts of assumptions have to be made, including potential storm surges, hydrology changes to the wetlands, MRGO, and the bureaucratic dynamics both in Washington and Louisiana.

Expect grousing from the Louisiana delegation that this isn't a sufficient amount to fix and strengthen the levees. It probably isn't - if the Big Dig is any guide ($3 billion initial price tag, $14.6 billion as built). However, the early indication is that at least Whiplash Nagin is saying the right things:

Nagin thanked Americans for the money to rebuild New Orleans and told former residents of the city to come home.

"It's time for you to come back to the Big Easy," he said. "This action today says come home to New Orleans."

Nagin said the levee system will be stronger than ever.

"These levees will be as high as 17 feet in some areas. We've never had that," he said. "We will have the holy trinity of recovery -- levees, housing and incentives."

Officials said the levee system would be rebuilt to its previous level of protection before the hurricane season next year, and that the process of strengthening them further would take two years.

They better get cracking as the hurricane season is only a few months away.

Thus Begins The Backslide

So, while we were initially told that the first segment of the Second Avenue Subway would be built by 2012, we're now being informed that the MTA believes that it would be done no sooner than 2015.

Why?

Money. It always comes down to money. And there simply isn't enough of it to make it all happen, but the problem is far deeper than that. We're talking about a multiyear project and by extending the project to 2015, the costs will escalate even more. What could have been built for $3 billion and finished by 2012 may cost $4 billion due to cost increases and delays if the segment finish date is 2015.

Just look at other major transportation projects that missed their original deadlines - the Big Dig for example. That project ran over budget and over schedule that the costs escalated by several orders of magnitude (and there are continuing costs because of structural problems with the tunnels).

A Treat For Urban Policy/Civil Engineering Folks

If you are a regular reader and happen to want to know what can happen when civil engineering runs amok, check out Mass Backward, which includes regular reporting on the Big Dig.

As you may know, the Big Dig is the largest civil engineering project in the nation and was designed to improve transportation through Boston by eliminating elevated highways downtown, replacing them with tunnel systems and connecting various highways together and extending the lines to Logan Airport.

Well, they got it done, over budget, over time, and the story is far from over. There are numerous problems with the structures of the tunnels, including water infiltration, improper design, and possible structural deficiencies.

After $14.7 billion, no one really has any idea how much more it will take to make the Big Dig (Central Artery/Tunnel) function properly.

How did the situation come about? Well, check out Mass Backward and see for yourself.