Ted Williams Tunnel

MassDOT alerts us that, once again, you'd best avoid Leverett Circle during the evening rush due to those still uncompleted repairs.

Separately, the state says it's shutting the westbound side of the Ted Williams Tunnel between 11:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. for some maintenance.

The Herald reports Gov. Patrick is looking at replacing toll takers with electronic systems.

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.

$15 billion and what do you get? A tunnel that's already too small for some trucks, that's what. The Globe reports the driver of a bigger than big rig smashed into an overhead sign in the Ted Williams Tunnel, then just kept going, at least, until some staties caught up with him on the Expressway in Dorchester.

The Outraged Liberal considers a possible real motive behind the humongous toll increases approved by the turnpike authority yesterday: Put pressure on the legislature to increase the gas tax.

He notes the tolls don't take effect until February or March, and not until after a public hearing (where will they hold that? Gillette Stadium?).

... Presumably, that would be enough time for Deval Patrick and legislators to get off their, um, sidelines, and approve a comprehensive plan to tackle the transportation nightmare (hey, throw in the disaster known as the MBTA while you are at it.) ...

Dan Kennedy on the turnpike authority: What, are they insane?

Jay Fitzgerald predicts we'll wind up with a toll increase, a gas-tax hike and the transfer of turnpike "hacks" to a new state authority. He uses a classic cartoon to illustrate how he feels this morning.

Modern Continental also has to keep paying for bonds for six years in case anything else goes wrong.

The Globe reports on toll increases approved by the turnpike authority today for the Weston and Allston/Brighton tolls and the harbor tunnels, starting in February or March. Most notable: Tolls at the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels will increase from $3.50 to $7 - although FastLane users will get to pay just $6.

The Lone Rider adds them to his list of Silver Line buses he will never get on again. Latest on his list: Bus 1131, which broke down in the Ted Williams Tunnel, causing a horrific traffic jam that meant it took him 47 minutes to get from Logan to South Station.

Alicia, meanwhile, uses her BlackBerry to report that the driver on the 7 bus is actually going too fast:

... She is speeding like crazy and then slams on the breaks if she has to pick someone up. Everyone's heads are whipping forward when she finally decides to break last minute. If there is a service slowdown going on, this chick is definitely boycotting it. Ugh, I need a barf bag. ...

How's an $8.50 tunnel toll grab ya?

Bonus fun quote:

"The last thing I'd want to be associated with is another Longfellow Bridge," [Turnpike Executive Director Alan] LeBovidge said, referring to the 102-year-old span over the Charles River that had to be partially closed this summer when it fell into disrepair.

Yeah, because we all know how well built those turnpike-controlled Big Dig tunnels are.

Ten current and former toll collectors at the Ted Williams and Callahan tunnels were charged today with stealing toll money from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which owns the tunnels.

Suffolk County DA Dan Conley says the most common scheme involved taking advantage of the different tolls charged to commercial vehicles and ordinary passenger cars:

As vehicles pass through the tolls, the collector is supposed to hit a switch indicating the type of vehicle passing through and collect the appropriate fare. In most of these instances we've charged, toll collectors would classify some of the taxi cabs or other commercial vehicles as ordinary vehicles, but charge the drivers the higher toll rate and pocket the difference.

Another scheme involved toll collectors manipulating the timing switch used to count cars so that two vehicles would be counted as one. Again, the toll was collected from the uncounted vehicle but pocketed by the toll collector. The dollars stolen from the Turnpike by misclassifying or miscounting vehicles could range anywhere from $20 to $150 per toll collector, per shift, and amount to thousands of dollars.

State Police began their investigation last October. The ten were issued summons to appear in Boston Municipal Court to answer the charges.

Not that that stopped the guy who tied up traffic Tuesday:

... In a video released by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Thursday, the flatbed truck carrying a crane is seen heading into the Ted Williams Tunnel. It triggered the overheight sensors and the warning sign before the tunnel's entrance, but the driver didn't stop. ...

Seems part of the Ted Williams Tunnel was built in such a way to make it impossible to inspect bolts - you know, those things that are supposed to keep the ceiling from falling on you.

The Globe reports:

A tall truck hit an electric sign near the entrance to the westbound Ted Williams Tunnel this morning, forcing traffic on Interstate 90 down to one lane, State Police said.

Isn't the Ted Williams Tunnel supposed to be all modern and stuff? How tall was that truck?

Third Decade admits to looking anxiously upward while driving back from Logan through the Ted Williams Tunnel yesterday - after first taking the detour through Charlestown to the airport:

Luckily we didn't see or experience anything out of the ordinary. Still, I'm glad I don't have to travel back and forth between the city and East Boston by car regularly. I can't imagine adding that much more anxiety to my daily commute. ...

So Big Dig workers used duct tape to hold up failing bolts in the Ted Williams Tunnel when the Superglue didn't work.

Aaron Margolis: Boston commuters have probably been joking for years that the Big Dig was put together with duct tape; sadly, a silly joke has turned into reality.

Tim at Boston Crazy Driving shows how wonderful the Internets are: You can read the 1998 Inspector General's report on bad bolts in the I-90 connector in the comfort of your own home.

Chris at Left Center Left wishes some enterprising blogger would compile a Big Dig for Dummies site that would answer questions such as:

... Did Christy Mihos really get pushed out because he was a whistleblower? At the time, I thought Swift wanted to fire him because he wanted to lower the Turnpike tolls, while the powers that be wanted to raise them to help with Big Dig costs. ...

Andy at Mass. Revolution Now notes the Globe story in which Tom Reilly is caught in yet another one of those contradictions that do little to bolster one's faith in his candidacy, involving last year's settlement talks with Bechtel /Parsons:

... The one lesson Tom Reilly needs to learn from this campaign is that he is best when he IGNORES COMPLETELY his political intuition, he has none. This is also not the first time the Attorney General's puffing has been deflated. Right now Reilly has an opportunity to turn the Big Dig into political gain without being political! If Reilly just does his job, something he has usually proven to be pretty good at, the politics will take care of itself. ...

Leave it to Soxaholix, of course, to remind us what's truly at stake here:

... Memo to the Big Dig engineers: You were working on the Ted Williams Tunnel, you know, Teddy Baseball, the Splendid Splintah, hello, war hero and not the Charles Stuart Tunnel or the Albert Desalvo Tunnel. Have some civic pride fercrissakes.

Yeah, right now Larry Bird is on the phone with his lawyah, "Hey, put in my will that when I'm dead Boston can't name anything aftah me, OK?" ...

Aaron Margolis at Hub Politics salutes Mitt Romney for his inspired leadership during the crisis.

Some leadership, Sco snorts, wondering where His Mittness was when everything else in the tunnels was falling apart.

Closing down. Closing down.
Another tunnel closing down.
My fair gov'nor.

Take some glue and fix it up.
Fix it up. Fix it up.
Take some glue and fix it up.
My fair gov'nor.

How will we open it up?
Open it up? Open it up?
How will we open it up?
My fair gov'nor.

Pay Bechtel lots of dough.
Lots of dough. Lots of dough.
Pay Bechtel lots of dough.
My fair gov'nor.

What would the Big Dig debacle be without a Big Dig Debacle blog?

Universal Hub's own Big Dig page.

This one, Exit 24 from I-90 west to 93, had been a route around the closed deadly tunnel. Even more delays for commuters - and potential headaches for residents in South Boston, where surface roads will be used as a detour:

This traffic diversion is expected to cause significant delays and traffic concerns in the South Boston community.

Additional Boston Police officers have been assigned to the effected area. However, it is strongly encouraged that motorists plan accordingly and if possible stagger work times, utilize alternate routes of travel and/or take public transportation. ...

More from AP.

John Daley: You didn't think it was going to get better, did you?

What's that about history and farce? Blue Mass. Group Blue Mass. Group has the scoop:

The Federal Highway Administration will investigate the Big Dig tunnel collapse. The FHA is headed by J. Richard Capka - who has some familiarity with the Big Dig:

... Capka was hired as the Big Dig's project director in December 2000, and was soon criticized for failing to get a handle on spiraling costs at the massive construction project. Others lambasted him for backing million-dollar, six-month severance contracts for three lawyers who were involved with the project -- deals that he later acknowledged were mistakes. ...

Also investigating: The National Transportation Safety Board:

... Augmenting the investigators who have been on-scene since shortly after the accident occurred, the NTSB is sending additional highway engineers, a metallurgical engineer, and the agency's director of highway investigations. There will be a total of seven Safety Board personnel working on-scene, supported by other specialists, as needed, from NTSB headquarters. ...

Friday18 and her husband used to work for a materials testing company - hired to test construction material on certain very large public-works projects in the Boston, many involving the same company responsible for the part of the Big Dig tunnel with the collapsing concrete slabs. And she explains why this makes her completely unsurprised by the collapse.

Bruce, who has written before about Big Dig construction deficiencies, today is left wondering what happened?

... Now, you've got to ask yourself, which is more likely? That this was a fluke occurrence, and that all the other suspended panels in that section of tunnel are just fine? Or, that this failure was just the proverbial tip of the iceberg, and the whole ceiling could likely give way anytime now? If it's proven to be the former, good luck convincing all the people who used to drive through this tunnel of that fact. ...

He wonders if maybe somebody cut corners and never properly bolted the panels in place. Channel 4 is reporting the panels might only have been held in place by glue.

Saying the ceiling collapse happened in "the oldest" part of a ten-year-old tunnel doesn't fill us with much confidence, Mr. Amorello, so please stop saying that.

Your comments after the photo of the turnpike/Ted Williams Tunnel connector (collapsed ceiling-tile tunnel on the left) - photo via MassGIS OLIVER: