"The system is not working."
According to a 4PM press conference today, all 1,146 bolts in the I-90 Eastbound connector have been labeled unreliable. Add to that another 308 "items of concern" that are support system related.
Romney said that a secondary support system will need to be designed and built to support the 6000 lb slabs hanging above the roadway. The existing system is simply not working.
Estimated Time Frame: At least a couple of months... Probably a lot more than that.
On a good note though, is that the Ted Williams Tunnel doesn't appear to have any problems even though it uses the same system of epoxy and bolts. The ceiling tiles there are only 700 lbs and apparently the system is more rigid and robust than the other one.
The inspection of the entire Big Dig project's ceilings should be completed soon and I'm sure the number of problem bolts will go up.
So, what does this tell us? Well... The shoddy installation procedure was systemic and probably not isolated to one contractor (Modern Continental) and that inspections probably never took place above the ceiling panel. It's not too unreasonable to think that Mass Pike Authority never looked up there, we all assumed they looked because we assumed that they knew what they were doing and they were the experts.
As the driving public and the public, in general, we assume that the experts know what they're doing in the systems that surround our modern life. Accidents and incidents like this that undermine the public trust are often caused by design failures. We the public, don't necessarily know much about the engineering and design of the systems around us and we assume they work properly until the day they don't. These design failures are often just an "obvious" thing that was overlooked or a condition that was never thought about.
This reminds me of a phrase that was used in the 80's by Ronald Reagan with respect to the Soviet Union: Trust, but Verify.
Proper verification and a healthy skepticism of a designed system would have probably prevented the tunnel accident.
Again, we ask 2 questions:
Romney said that a secondary support system will need to be designed and built to support the 6000 lb slabs hanging above the roadway. The existing system is simply not working.
Estimated Time Frame: At least a couple of months... Probably a lot more than that.
On a good note though, is that the Ted Williams Tunnel doesn't appear to have any problems even though it uses the same system of epoxy and bolts. The ceiling tiles there are only 700 lbs and apparently the system is more rigid and robust than the other one.
The inspection of the entire Big Dig project's ceilings should be completed soon and I'm sure the number of problem bolts will go up.
So, what does this tell us? Well... The shoddy installation procedure was systemic and probably not isolated to one contractor (Modern Continental) and that inspections probably never took place above the ceiling panel. It's not too unreasonable to think that Mass Pike Authority never looked up there, we all assumed they looked because we assumed that they knew what they were doing and they were the experts.
As the driving public and the public, in general, we assume that the experts know what they're doing in the systems that surround our modern life. Accidents and incidents like this that undermine the public trust are often caused by design failures. We the public, don't necessarily know much about the engineering and design of the systems around us and we assume they work properly until the day they don't. These design failures are often just an "obvious" thing that was overlooked or a condition that was never thought about.
- A rudder that was too small for the Titanic and the main turbine couldn't properly reverse
- An improperly designed joint and cold weather conditions caused the solid rocket boosters to fail in the Challenger accident
- Simple water gauges in reaction vessel for Three Mile Island would have shown the lack of coolant
This reminds me of a phrase that was used in the 80's by Ronald Reagan with respect to the Soviet Union: Trust, but Verify.
Proper verification and a healthy skepticism of a designed system would have probably prevented the tunnel accident.
Again, we ask 2 questions:
- Why was the construction not up to specifications?
- Why wasn't the poor construction caught?
2 Comments:
LOL! The Big Dig - brought to you by the Liberals in Massachusetts overseeing a Union job!
What a mess!!!
Yeah, like that fucking interstate highway system. What a debacle that was.
Don't be an idiot.
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