Big Dig Ceiling Collapse
On July 10, 2006 at approximately 11 p.m. four three-ton sections of a concrete drop ceiling inside the I-90 Fort Point Channel tunnel leading to the Ted Williams Tunnel collapsed. A section of ceiling fell on top of a car traveling through the connector tunnel, killing 38-year-old passenger Milena Del Valle and slightly injuring her husband Angel Del Valle, who was driving. The cause of the collapse was later determined to be the failure of adhesives connecting a steel tieback suspending the concrete drop ceiling to the main ceiling above.
Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney ordered the eastbound lanes of the Ted Williams Tunnel to be immediately shut down on July 20 after two ceiling supports showed signs of slippage. At a press conference, Romney stated that "pull tests" were to be conducted in the eastbound tube to test the stress load on the bolt/epoxy system that supports the drop ceiling. An independent contracting firm was to conduct that test. Romney said the shutdown should last "hours, not days." The next morning, the eastbound lanes of the tunnel were opened to MBTA Silver Line buses as well as commercial buses running to Logan Airport.
Late in the evening of August 8, I-90 connector ramp A leading to the Ted Williams Tunnel was reopened to general traffic, easing the crunch on Logan Airport traffic coming from the south. Cars heading to the airport northbound on the Southeast Expressway (I-93) would get off at exit 18 and take the South Boston Access (Haul) Road to Ramp A, eliminating the need to go through downtown Boston and U-turn at Storrow Drive to access the Callahan Tunnel. One eastbound lane of the connector tunnel which collapsed was reopened to traffic on September 1.
Read more about this topic: Ted Williams Tunnel
Famous quotes containing the words big, dig, ceiling and/or collapse:
“Seems like everything people oughta know they just don’t want to hear. I guess that’s the big trouble with the world.”
—Geoffrey Homes (1902–1977)
“You’ll never succeed in idealizing hard work. Before you can dig mother earth you’ve got to take off your ideal jacket. The harder a man works, at brute labour, the thinner becomes his idealism, the darker his mind.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Spooky things happen in houses densely occupied by adolescent boys. When I checked out a four-inch dent in the living room ceiling one afternoon, even the kid still holding the baseball bat looked genuinely baffled about how he possibly could have done it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“I confidently predict the collapse of capitalism and the beginning of history. Something will go wrong in the machinery that converts money into money, the banking system will collapse totally, and we will be left having to barter to stay alive. Those who can dig in their garden will have a better chance than the rest. I’ll be all right; I’ve got a few veg.”
—Margaret Drabble (b. 1939)