Report: Wrong Glue Used for Big Dig Ceiling

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Builders and designers of Boston's Big Dig tunnel are defending themselves against a new federal report blaming them for a fatal accident. Last year, ceiling panels fell and killed a passing motorist. The National Transportation Safety Board says the wrong glue was used on the project.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

TOVIA SMITH: In the year since 39-year-old Melina Del Valle was crushed to death by 26 tons of falling concrete, investigators have labored through thousands of documents and countless inspections but came to a simple conclusion: A fast-setting epoxy used to hold up the ceiling never should have been used. Chief investigator Marc Bayard(ph) briefed NTSB chair Mark Rosenker on the findings.

Mr. MARC BAYARD (Big Dig Investigator): There was no thought given to what are the long-term characteristics of the particular epoxy being used.

Mr. MARK ROSENKER (Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board): Is it a case that they didn't know what they didn't know?

Mr. BAYARD: Quite possibly, yes.

SMITH: The project's manager, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and the designer, Gannett Fleming, declined to comment. But both the builder, Modern Continental, and the bolt and epoxy supplier, Powers Fasteners, are denying culpability.

Powers called it absurd to blame them. The companies all face multiple lawsuits. Aviation attorney Anthony Tarricone says the NTSB report increases the heat on all of them.

Mr. ANTHONY TARRICONE (Founding Partner, Sarrouf, Tarricone & Flemming): I think it constitutes a roadmap, and the lawyers will be able to go down all the paths that are evident here and get to the bottom of what happened.

SMITH: But some say the NTSB report goes too easy on state officials. Jack Lemley is a tunnel construction expert who was hired by the Turnpike Authority to look into Big Dig problems including massive water leaks. He says organizational issues compromised the state's oversight of the massive project.

Mr. JACK LEMLEY (Construction Expert): You had the state's personnel co-opted into the Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff organization and that line got blurred between the client and the contractor.

SMITH: Although the accident happened before he took office, state Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen concedes the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, at the very least, failed to properly inspect the tunnel.

Mr. BERNARD COHEN (Secretary of Transportation, Massachusetts): I think that there's no way of avoiding the fact that this is a stain on the turnpike's record in terms of the construction of this project. There's just no way to deny that.

SMITH: Cohen says inspections are now conducted every six months. But that does little to appease many Boston commuters who are still furious and even fearful about the Big Dig.

Ms. ANITA D'ANTONIO(ph): I do avoid the tunnel. My name is Anita D'Antonio. I most certainly try and avoid it because I just don't trust any of the work that was done, and it makes me very angry because federal tax dollars may have been just poured right down the drain.

SMITH: State officials have already filed lawsuits seeking to recover some of the billions of taxpayer dollars. Meantime, both state and federal authorities are also considering criminal charges.

Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.

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