Talking Points

$28 Million Settlement Reached in Death of Woman Killed in Big Dig Collapse

Read more on the Big Dig materials failure and see appalling aftermath photos and diagrams at Design News’ Big Dig coverage page.

The family of a woman killed two years ago when the car she was riding in was crushed as a portion of a ceiling collapsed inside a Big Dig tunnel settled a wrongful death suit for more than $28 million last night.

In July 2006, 39-year-old Milena Del Valle was killed when part of the tunnel collapsed onto her car. Her husband survived.

The Associated Press is reporting the main defendants were all companies involved in Boston’s Big Dig project including: Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, Modern Continental Co., Gannett Fleming Inc. and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversaw the project. In total 15 main defendants were named in the lawsuit.

The $28 million settlement includes a settlement amount of $6 million from Powers Fasteners Inc., a company involved in the construction of the I-90 Connector Tunnel. The company was indicted and faced criminal charges in the death of Del Valle last September.   

In July 2007, Aggregate Industries NE Inc. the company suspected of supplying the substandard concrete used in Boston’s Big Dig, agreed to pay $42 million to settle civil and criminal investigations. Six managers from Aggregate Industries NE Inc.were indicted in federal court in May 2006, on conspiracy charges they knowingly delivered at least 5,000 truckloads of substandard concrete for use in building the Big Dig’s tunnels, ramps and bridges between 1999 and 2003.

In January 2008, the firms responsible for designing and managing Boston’s Big Dig project reached a $458 million settlement with state and federal officials which would allow these companies to avoid criminal charges in the 2006 fatal tunnel collapse and any civil liabilities with infrastructure problems. Under the settlement terms, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff would pay $407 million and 24 other companies involved in the project would pay about $51 million.

The settlement would keep Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff from facing criminal charges in the death Del Valle.

The NTSB determined the probable cause of the July 10, 2006 ceiling collapse in the D Street portal of the Interstate 90 connector tunnel in Boston was the use of an epoxy anchor adhesive with poor creep resistance – the epoxy formulation was not capable of sustaining long-term loads. The report released after the hours-long hearing last month said over time the epoxy deformed and fractured until several ceiling support anchors pulled free and allowed a portion of the ceiling to collapse. The use of the inappropriate epoxy formulation resulted from the failure of the contractors to identify potential creep in the anchor adhesive as a critical long-term failure mode and to account for possible anchor creep in the design, specifications and approval process for the epoxy anchors used in the tunnel.

New Report on U.S. Bridges Released as I-35 Bridge Collapse Anniversary Approaches

Nearly one year to the date of last year’s I-35 Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis, a report released yesterday says at least one in four U.S. bridges needs repairs and at least $140 billion is needed to make them.

According to the report, 152,000 of the country’s 600,000 bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The report says the five main problems facing these bridges are: age, congestion, soaring construction costs, lack of funds for maintenance and the staggering costs associated with new bridges.

More than a dozen people were killed and 145 injured when the I-35 bridge collapsed Aug. 1, 2007 bridge collapse. The NTSB determined the bridge collapsed under the weight of tons of sand and construction materials that were stored at two of the structure’s weakest points. See the report here.

Bridge safety continues to be a concern across the nation. Last weekend, a 1,200-lb chunk of concrete fell onto highway traffic after the slab tore off the underside of an overpass in St. Paul, MN. An inspection on the I-35E overpasses says the 50-year-old bridge is “structurally safe.”

If you’re concerned about troubled bridges in your state, you can check them out here.

Firm Recommends Installing 900 New Support Anchors in Big Dig Tunnel

The Boston Globe is reporting today that an engineering firm is recommending the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority install about 900 new support anchors in the Ted Williams Tunnel. This is the same firm that was hired to inspect all Boston Big Dig tunnels following the July 2006 Boston Big Dig tunnel collapse that killed a 38-year-old woman when the car she was riding in was crushed by falling ceiling panels.

Powers Fasteners of Brewster, NY was charged last summer with a single count of involuntary manslaughter in the woman’s death. Milena Del Valle was killed in July 2006 with a portion of Boston’s Big Dig Interstate-90 connector tunnel ceiling collapsed and crushed the car she was riding in with her husband. Powers Fasteners provided the epoxy used to secure the bolts to suspend the tunnel roof ceiling. 

These anchors, according the Globe story, would be a backup in 250-ft sections near tunnel entrances which officials say are impossible to inspect because they were designed without a crawl space. These new supports would “fortify epoxy bolts, which were blamed for the fatal ceiling collapse.”

Gary Klein, an engineering consultant from Wiss, Janney, Elstner Assoc., the firm hired to review all the MTA’s roads, tunnels and bridges, gave this recommendation today at the Turnpike Authority’s monthly meeting. He did not estimate the cost of installation.