"Glue And Screw"

That's how one of my listeners describes the "let's use epoxy to hold up 5,000 pound cement panels" system that killed Milena Del Valle Monday night. The Big Dig uses glue, and the taxpayers get screwed.

Thanks to the Boston Herald today, we now know just how badly we are getting screwed:

The supports used for the concrete ceiling panels that collapsed this week and killed 38-year-old Melina Del Valle were not fully weather-protected or fabricated to contract standards - a deficiency reported to the lead contractor, project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority during construction, the bombshell documents show.

In September 2001, a Big Dig “deficiency report” indicated that a key part of the ceiling hanger known as the clevis was not “fabricated and galvanized” to contract specifications. The report also stated the clevises, which connect to metal rods supporting 3-ton slabs that collapsed, were found to be plagued by “significant rust.” [emphasis added]

So can we finally forget the "It's not Amorello's fault because he wasn't in charge" crap now? The report was 9/01. He took over in February of '02. Which means he had more than four years to fix the problem, as it was reported. He didn't do it. The people he hired didn't do it. The people who answer to him didn't do it.

He's gotta go.