BOSTON - Boston's entire highway system will be inspected after a deadly tunnel collapse in the city's "Big Dig" project, and another 60 potentially dangerous locations were found in the tunnel.
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority said that in 60 areas, bolts that fix three-tonne cement ceiling panels "may be compromised" because of Monday's ceiling collapse in a connector tunnel.
A 38-year-old woman was killed late on Monday when at least 12 tonnes of cement cascaded from the ceiling, including a three-tonne panel that flattened her car. Her 46-year-old husband managed to crawl through a window.
The $14.6 billion Big Dig, which eliminated outdated elevated highways that were considered a blight on downtown Boston and created a sleek system of highway tunnels, has been plagued by controversy.
"People should not have to drive through the Turnpike tunnels with their fingers crossed," Gov. Mitt Romney told reporters on Monday. "It is time for change at that authority."
Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew Amorello, rebuffing calls to resign by Romney, the state attorney-general and The Boston Globe, said the tunnel would stay closed longer than expected because it was now a crime scene. It leads to the Ted Williams Tunnel and Boston's airport.
Crime Scene
Each fallen panel must be marked and placed in forensic evidence bags, he said, adding that his independent agency would comply with a criminal investigation.
"We will do everything possible to ensure it won't happen again," Amorello told a news conference. When asked if would resign, he replied "no." "I've tried to put politics aside and only focus on my jobs and responsibilities," he said.
The state attorney general's office issued subpoenas to companies involved with the Big Dig as part of a criminal investigation. Federal regulators, state police and private investigators hired by the MTA have also launched probes.
Romney accused Amorello a day earlier of a "continuing and ongoing pattern of mismanagement" in the 15-year project, which has been plagued by cost-overruns, leaks, criminal investigations, delays and scandals.
In May, six men who supplied concrete to the Big Dig were arrested, accused of delivering sub-standard material. In April 2005, a day after authorities declared the tunnels safe, debris fell from an overhead vent and damaged at least five vehicles.
The Big Dig, a huge engineering project that has been compared to the building of the Hoover Dam or the Panama Canal, has cut the average peak travel time on northbound Interstate 93 by 17 minutes to about 3 minutes after major road construction ended in January, an MTA report shows.
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