Section of ceiling tumbles in tunnel (Boston Big Dig I-90/I-93, One Dead)

Boston Globe ^ | July 11, 2006 | John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

[ninonitti]

Back before one shovel full of dirt had been turned there were proposals to build a Boston bypass out in the bay.

I remember the handmade signs nailed to just about anything standing up: trees, telephone poles etc. The audacity of the idea always appealed to me I wonder where that guy who made all those signs is now.

The image of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway up on the surface of the Big Dig while the long suffering taxpayers are being crushed to death below in the Thomas P. O'Neill Tunnel O Death is just a little too macabre.

[mewzilla]

From the Boston Herald....

Hub tunnel collapse horror: Debris kills woman

[Enchante]

There should be "hell to pay" for the people responsible for every aspect of this monstrosity...........

---

Hub tunnel collapse horror: Debris kills woman
By Michele McPhee and O’Ryan Johnson
Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - Updated: 02:16 AM EST

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=147833

A 10-by-30-foot section of concrete plummeted from the ceiling of a Mass Pike connector tunnel onto the roof of a Honda sedan last night, killing a woman riding in the passenger seat but leaving the male driver “virtually unharmed,” a state trooper at the scene said.
“It was massive,” the trooper said of the concrete slab that fell about 11 p.m.
The startling collapse forced the state troopers to immediately close the tunnel lest more concrete rain down on drivers.


“The eastbound side has been closed until the Mass Pike can verify the safety of the tunnel,” said state trooper Kara England.
State troopers assigned to the tunnel began receiving calls about 11 p.m. that debris had fallen from the tunnel roof and struck a vehicle. England said the roadway is a “connector tunnel” that runs between the eastbound Massachusetts Turnpike and South Boston.
Boston EMS Lt. Chris Stratton said his crews took one person, identified by a trooper at the scene as a male driver, to Massachusetts General Hospital with minor injuries. Stratton said the woman had been trapped under debris and was declared dead at the scene. He said firefighters were working last night to free her body, which he would be turned over to the Medical Examiner.
EMS and fire crews were both staged at safe locations away from where the debris collapsed until engineers declared the tunnel was safe enough for them to enter.
A state trooper who saw the wreckage said it appeared the concrete fell at an angle as the car passed beneath it, crushing the vehicle, with most of the rubble landing on the passenger side. The driver’s side was partially shielded when the falling slab struck a raised gated walkway that runs the length of the tunnel, giving the driver a small pocket of protection.
“The car was completely crushed. That kind of weight would have crushed a Hummer - it’s amazing that guy got out alive,” said a second trooper who saw the debris field.
He said the 10-by-30 section that dropped was only half of the slab in that section of the tunnel. He said it appeared that iron securing the slab to the tunnel roof gave way. He said Modern Continental work crews had been in that section of the tunnel in recent weeks but he did not know what sort of work they were doing.
The Massachusetts Turnpike did not return two calls placed to their representatives’ cell phones or to three pages sent to them. They staged an early morning press conference that happened after press time.
The spot appeared to be a ticking time bomb, said a trooper who was thankful the collapse didn’t happen during rush hour.
“Its unbelievable that only one car was hit,” he said. “If more than one car was down there it would have been a disaster.”

[HiTech RedNeck]

Was this the actual uppermost structural part of the tunnel or simply an inner finish? Tie backs, to exactly what? Beams embedded in the soil above? No match for those steel gnawing gophers.

[dennisw]

Beautification ..... blame the quickie spell check :)

[hershey]

From the pictures on TV, it looks like inner finish panels fell.

[HiTech RedNeck]

What ever became of Armstrong acoustical ceilings.

[mewzilla]

WCBV's coverage.

[maryz]

He said Modern Continental work crews had been in that section of the tunnel in recent weeks but he did not know what sort of work they were doing.

Modern Continental's name keeps cropping up when anything happens. My memory's fuzzy, but it seems to me the owner (Les Marino?) died of a heart attack when calls for an investigation started to get loud.

[maryz]

On the radio, someone said the panels weigh three tons each.

[ninonitti]

From the looks of it a suspended slab.

The real long term problem is the effect leaks will have on the steel structural elements. Voids in the side slurry walls have allowed brackish water to leak into the tunnel. Additional waterproofing problems have allowed rainwater runoff to leak through the ceilings.

Rust Never Sleeps

[Panerai]

"IBRF" Oh, NO - Common now, everyone knows this would be Fat Matt's fault.

[ninonitti]

Correctomundo!!!

Did he have the same cardiologist as Ken Lay? Tinfoilers want to know

[dennisw]

Back before one shovel full of dirt had been turned there were proposals to build a Boston bypass out in the bay.

I remember the handmade signs nailed to just about anything standing up: trees, telephone poles etc. The audacity of the idea always appealed to me I wonder where that guy who made all those signs is now.

I also remember those signs. The idea was a series of Seattle style pontoon bridges out in the bay for drivers who wanted to bypass Boston via I95. I read articles about that proposal. It was never given a decent airing because the construction companies and unions involved would have been more tilted to iron work. And those guys didn't have the political muscle of the tunneling and concrete pouring companies and unions.

Also the Boston bypass would have been 1/3 as expensive. Costs always balloon when you choose to tunnel rather than build above ground

[mewzilla]

On Modern Continental, from this link:

On the slurry wall defects the OIG report pins the blame heavily on Modern Continental: "Construction progress records from that period revealed that Modern Continental made a string of errors during the construction of the concrete panel where the leak occurred." It lists the shoddy work practices of Modern Continental quoting from the report by Mueser Rutledge, New York consultants hired then fired by the Turnpike. The wall construction defect that precipitated the Sept 15 2004 gusher was known by B/PB as far back as 1999, but they failed to get it fixed.

The majority of the wall sections with defects (101 so far) were built by Modern Continental, says the OIG.

The report says the wall gusher was not a one-of-a-kind event, as claimed at the time by B/PB, but is part of a "systemic" problem of poor quality construction at the project. (p7)

Paging FNC....You wanted a story, right...?

[rlmorel]

"...the Republican Party can't suffer... because it's gone. Literally packed up and moved, following the jobs, mostly..."

Boy, CN18F, are you from the same state I am? There have NEVER been Republicans in office in this state (well, maybe back in the fifties and before) My dad was a true blue conservative, he was liberal in absolutely NO way at all...but even he was a Democrat because he knew that a "-R" cannot get elected in this state, the Governorship notwithstanding. My dad was one of the charter members of Citizens for Limited Taxation way back when. I sure do miss him.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Having inner panels that weigh this much sounds like something out of a clown's dream. Unless somehow all that weight is helping to keep the tunnel from coming apart. I'd have put acoustical foam up there, with aluminum gutters atop to carry off leak and condensation water.

[dennisw]

http://www.moderncontinental.com/lesmarino.htm

Les Marino was quite a guy

[beyond the sea]

Not enough duct tape?

[mewzilla]

And Modern Continental given at least $25,000 to Jean Francois's political campaigns.