Big Dig
The end of Fort Point Channel
By adamg - 3/25/12 - 1:54 pm
Not very impressive looking.
Stand on the Summer Street Bridge and look toward South Boston, and Fort Point Channel looks like a long rectangle, ending in a wall just past the Gillette plant.
In fact, the channel continues for a few more blocks, as a narrower drainage channel, ending at the Boston Water and Sewage Commission Wet Weather Sewage Discharge Outfall Number 70.
You can stroll the Harbor Walk to what looks like the end of Fort Point Channel and admire the re-painted remains of a giant train bridge that crossed there before the Ted Williams Tunnel remade that area (and from which you can still watch the trains arriving at and departing from South Station):
Boston miffed over long delayed Big Dig transportation project
By adamg - 12/28/11 - 8:43 amNo, not the Green Line extension. NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the Boston Conservation Commission is wagging its collective finger at the state over the continued non-existence of a usable dock at Atlantic Wharf on Fort Point Channel, despite a state promise to have one built as part of mitigation for the Big Dig.
Big Dig light fixture comes crashing down
By adamg - 11/10/11 - 8:41 amBut not because it was held up with rusty paper clips but because a car on the top level of a car carrier knocked into a bunch of light fixtures, the Globe reports. And isn't it nice to see that Big Dig designers paid homage to Storrow Drive by designing a tunnel with height restrictions?
The latest dirt on the Big Dig
By adamg - 8/11/11 - 8:40 amThe Globe reports frozen dirt under a section of the Big Dig is thawing out faster than expected, causing a cavern down there that is filling up with water.
Yes, of course there's thawing frozen dirt - engineers froze the dirt to make it easier to put in tunnel segments. State officials say nothing to worry about - the segment will act like a bridge if the underground lake gets too big - and no need to ask for legal help from an unfrozen caveman lawyer.
A gushing review of the Big Dig
By adamg - 7/24/11 - 9:21 amThe Globe gets a copy of an engineer's report on continuing water problems in the tunnels, such as a design flaw that's leading to cracks that let in water. Will require expensive repairs, natch.
Cable ties help hold up some Big Dig lights
By adamg - 7/15/11 - 5:58 pmThat plastic must be pretty tough. At least they won't rust.
UPDATE: Apparently, the fact that plastic doesn't rust is just why they're in place.
$150,000 salary, not Big Dig lighting fixtures, might be too much of a strain for state transportation czar to handle
By adamg - 7/14/11 - 4:02 pmThe Globe reports Jeffrey Mullan will depart as state transportation secretary this fall because he needs to make more money, not because of any concerns over his handling of Big Dig safety issues.
Mullan, however, issued a statement after the Globe report came out:
Reports of my departure as Secretary of Transportation this fall are premature.
In May, I discussed with the Governor my intention to transition from the administration within the year for personal reasons. However, we made no final decisions regarding my future at that time. While I still intend to transition out this year, I have made no final plans. I am fully engaged in the role of Secretary and CEO at MassDOT and look forward to leading the organization in the weeks and months ahead.
Mullan presided over the amalgamation of a variety of formerly independent state departments and authorities into a single Department of Transportation.
Holey moley: Boston firefighters pull another worker out of a shaft
By adamg - 4/8/11 - 6:39 am
EMTs get injured worker to ambulance. Photo by BFD.
Boston firefighters spent two hours early this morning getting a state transportation worker out of a shaft connected to the Ted Williams Tunnel.
According to the Boston Fire Department, the worker plunged 20 feet down a shaft into a pool of sludge around 1 a.m.
Using ropes and pulleys, firefighters lifted the worker out after about 2 hours in the hole. He was washed down as part of a decon.
The worker was taken to Mass. General. The department says the firefighters who rescued him were not the same ones who rescued an MBTA worker at the bottom of a shaft last week.
The shaft. Photo by BFD.
You begin to wonder what's being secured to the ceiling by duct tape in the Big Dig tunnels
By adamg - 3/24/11 - 8:28 amThe Globe reports MassDOT Secretary Jeff Mullan, who previously said he didn't tell the governor or the public about crashing, corroding Big Dig light fixtures to let his underlings get to the bottom of the problem, now says what really happened is that those underlings didn't tell him about the problem for a month.
'The residue and the stench of Big Dig culture' waft up again
By adamg - 3/18/11 - 7:32 amThe Globe reports the latest on the plummeting light fixture in the Big Dig: Transportation officials withheld news for a month and it turns out the "stem to stern" investigation ordered by the Romney administration didn't include actually disassembling any of the fixtures to see if they were rotting from within, which, it turns out, some were.
