Whether or not Matt Amorello has legal precedent to stay as Turnpike head or not, after Monday night’s tragedy and yesteday’s performance I don’t see him staying on much longer. I have some sympathy: clearly the shoddy construction is not Amorello’s fault and he’s trying to do what he thinks is his job, coming out and facing the press (not an enviable task) and trying to reassure the public. But you just can’t say the tunnels are safe when no one knows if they are. You can’t. It was his Michael Brown moment and it sealed the fate of his political career.
Steve Bailey gets it right. Matt Amorello should go, but our rage should be directed at no small part at Bechtel and any contractors involved. I hope that Tom Reilly and every significant state official has a PowerPoint presentation of Big Dig problems ready and will fly around to every project these companies are bidding for to show what’s happened here.
And, too, there is a political problem. It’s less that any body - legislature, turnpike, or governor - failed to take accountability than the state’s governance seemed purposefully set up to keep power operating sub rosa and keep accountability from happening. A string of Republican governors don’t come off well from this, but I don’t see any way to avoid . Finally, there is no good reason for an autonomous Turnpike Authority. The state roads and Big Dig project should be subsumed under the Department of Transportation. If autonomy had positive effects, I’d say stick with it. Instead we’ve got nothing but graft, overruns and shoddy construction. Obviously, public works themselves aren’t impossible to do, even with impeccable quality, but Massachusetts has given a textbook case on how not to have a big public project.
Finally, I don’t know engineering and design, but can’t help wonder if something else has changed between the days of the Callahan tunnel and now. Does something about modular construction methods lead to problems? John Daley has similar thoughts:
Did 2 ton, CONCRETE hanging tiles cost more than a conventional tunnel ceiling? Was it simply a way to present a higher bill to the Turnpike Authority? How else can one explain such a ridiculous design?
There may be an engineering need for concrete ceiling, but my guess is that in theory having concrete tiles is cheaper to do because materials can be mass produced elsewhere and trucked in. Also, I’d be curious to know how tunnels used to be built - did the Holland tunnel rely on epoxy, as well? Surely, not.
No comments have been added to this post yet.