Woman Killed in Boston Big Dig Tunnel Fall

POSTED BY: AURaptor
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 07:47
VIEWED: 2700
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AURAPTOR

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:04 PM

Quote:
BOSTON — Three-ton concrete panels fell from the ceiling of the city's Big Dig tunnel, killing a woman in a car and shutting down a section of the massive building project that has become both a central route through the city and a source of construction concerns and cost overruns.

The woman was a passenger in a car hit by debris from the ceiling late Monday, authorities said. A man believed to be the driver was able to squeeze out and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, authorities said.

Authorities say safety has not been compromised by problems with the $14 billion Big Dig highway project, which buried Interstate 93 beneath downtown and extended the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport.

The Big Dig is the single most expensive highway project in American history. Although the project was estimated at $2.5 billion in 1985, when the last major highway section opened in December 2003, over $14.6 billion had been spent in federal and state tax dollars as of 2006. The project was replete with delays, arrests, escalating costs, leaks, poor execution and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General is demanding contractors refund taxpayers $108 million for "shoddy work." - Wikipedia

From an estimated $2.5 Billion to over $ 14.6 Billion, with delays, leaks.....and the damn thing is falling apart already! This from the land of Ted Kennedy and John ( I served in Vietnam ) Kerry.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

HERO

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 3:26 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
From an estimated $2.5 Billion to over $ 14.6 Billion, with delays, leaks.....and the damn thing is falling apart already! This from the land of Ted Kennedy and John ( I served in Vietnam ) Kerry.

To be fair any tunnel would collapse under the weight of all that money they keep putting down there.

Perhaps you should start a "Liberals can't dig a hole" thread to go along with the 'cant defend america' one. Its ironic. They can't dig the whole, but they can sure fill them up.

H

AURAPTOR

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 12:54 AM

I found this line.....The woman was a passenger in a car hit by debris from the ceiling late Monday, authorities said. ...to be interesting. I usually don't equate 'debris' as giant slabs of concrete roofing!

And this from the state which gives of John Kerry, who thought he could do things 'better' than Bush.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

RUE

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 2:00 AM

You guys wonder why no one is giving your posts credit beyond your own little folie a deux?

AURAPTOR

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 10:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rue:
You guys wonder why no one is giving your posts credit beyond your own little folie a deux?

Why, is it in the wrong area ? I thought about 'news headline discussion' after I had posted here, but went w/ my first thought.

But did you mean to say 'credit' ?? It's an actual event which happened, so I don't know what you mean. And even though I don't live in the Boston area, it's a sobering story for all manner of reasons.

BTW.....

Quote:
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority officials and the project manager said an investigation begun after yesterday's deadly concrete collapse has found dozens of signs of bolts loosening and
other potential failures in the same tunnel. The experts said other lanes of the main route from Boston's Logan Airport also show signs of trouble.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

SOUPCATCHER

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:17 PM

Let me preface my opinion by stating that I'm not a civil engineer.

I don't think there's anything novel about the design of this particular tunnel (unlike one of the bridges that is part of the Big Dig where, IIRC, the design had not been used anywhere else in the world and all the analysis was done using computers because of the complexity of the equations. Not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that sometimes when you do something for the first time the problems you encounter have no precedent - Tacoma Narrows bridge comes to mind). Which means that this is an avoidable error due to either faulty design (more specifically, faulty analysis during the design process) or faulty implementation - where someone cheated on the plans.

It's unclear to me what is meant by "bolts loosening." If it's the case that the threaded fasteners are unscrewing themselves that is one thing. If it's the case that the bolts themselves are working out of where they are mounted, that's another. Either way, it seems to me that vibration is the main cause of the collapse.

So, based on an admitted lack of knowledge, my first hunch is that either the engineer who did the vibration analysis fucked up or the people who installed the panels fucked up. No way the panels should fall after only seven years (It would be interesting to find out when failure was expected to occur).

And I agree that the use of the word "debris" is silly.

* edited to add: I will point out that bringing up Ted Kennedy and John Kerry is silly. I almost didn't respond to this thread for that reason. And I wouldn't have if you had followed Hero's tactic of purposefully writing silly liberal-attacking thread titles just to get a jolly off seeing them on the front page. Although, after spending some time on the IMDb message boards right around the time of the release of the BDM, it's a tactic I've seen used quite a lot and usually elicitis the reaction that the thread author is looking for.

AURAPTOR

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:34 PM

My point about interjecting Kerry and Kennedy into the story ( the very last line of the original post, btw ) was intended to say 2 things.

1 - that Big Gov't projects like this tend to run amuck and so much time/$ / materials have been wasted, and for what? A horribly flawed project! And trajically so!

2 - It wasn't long ago, I thought, that the official ceremony recognizing The Big Dig took place, and among those attending was John Kerry.

I could be wrong, but that's what I was thinking at the time. Pardon if I was wrong on the 2nd point.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

KANEMAN

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:41 PM

Let me get this right....a 12 "BILLON" dollar cost over-run....and they only have to pay back 108 Million?.....shiny indeed!

SOUPCATCHER

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:51 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
My point about interjecting Kerry and Kennedy into the story ( the very last line of the original post, btw ) was intended to say 2 things.

1 - that Big Gov't projects like this tend to run amuck and so much time/$ / materials have been wasted, and for what? A horribly flawed project! And trajically so!

2 - It wasn't long ago, I thought, that the official ceremony recognizing The Big Dig took place, and among those attending was John Kerry.

I could be wrong, but that's what I was thinking at the time. Pardon if I was wrong on the 2nd point.

You could've made a better case going after Tip O'Neil, who actually got funding from Congress and whose name is on one of the tunnels (not the one with the structural failure), rather than someone who was at the official opening ceremony.

* edited to add: Actually, I'm really surprised that you didn't bring up Tip O'Neil. He was a Democrat. More of a liberal than John Kerry will ever be. And he actually played a part in the impeachment proceedings against Nixon. It's the trifecta. I'm surprised you didn't immediately label him a traitor and cry out for his disinternment and immolation (okay, I may have gone a bit far with the last sentence

).

AURAPTOR

Thursday, July 13, 2006 12:23 AM

Quote:
* edited to add: Actually, I'm really surprised that you didn't bring up Tip O'Neil. He was a Democrat. More of a liberal than John Kerry will ever be. And he actually played a part in the impeachment proceedings against Nixon. It's the trifecta. I'm surprised you didn't immediately label him a traitor and cry out for his disinternment and immolation (okay, I may have gone a bit far with the last sentence ).

I forgot that it was Tip O'Neil who was honored recently in that manner. I don't know if he was "more liberal than Kerry ever will be " , but you're right, he was a big lib. And, despite their differences, O'Neil and Reagan admired and respected each other greatly. Because of that, and due to the fact that he's no longer with us, I felt MA's 2 living Senators were better targets....err... I mean more representitive of what's going on today.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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