Gov. Romney Wants Control of Big Dig Probe

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston Tuesday, July 11, 2006. Romney said he was concerned about the safety of the Big Dig tunnels, and that he would seek to remove Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman Matthew Amorello,after concrete ceiling panels collapsed, killing Milena Delvalle, 38, a native of Costa Rica. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds - AP)

BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney announced Thursday he was filing emergency legislation to seize control over inspections and any decisions on reopening a highway tunnel where 12 tons of falling concrete killed a woman.

Romney also started legal proceedings to oust the chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversaw the troubled $14.6 billion Big Dig highway project through downtown Boston.

"There should no longer be any doubt that the Turnpike Authority has failed to do its job effectively," Romney said.

Contractors knew as early as 1999 that there were problems with some of the bolts attaching the massive concrete panels to the ceiling of the Interstate 90 connector tunnel where the woman's car was crushed Monday, Attorney General Tom Reilly said. Five bolts in the tunnel had failed testing that fall.

"It was not only identified, but there was a plan to address that problem," Reilly said Wednesday. "What we're trying to determine right now is was that plan implemented."

Preliminary tunnel inspections after the collapse found at least 60 more signs of loose bolts and other potential failures in the eastbound lanes, according to Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman Matthew Amorello and Michael Lewis, project director of the Big Dig.

In some places, bolts had started to come out of the ceiling. In others, gaps had developed between the ceiling and metal plates that are part of the bracing used to hold the massive panels aloft.

A spokesman for project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff declined to comment on the attorney general's allegation. Contractor Modern Continental did not respond to a phone call and e-mail.

John Christian, an engineer hired to investigate for the Turnpike Authority, said the bolts used a standard design: Holes were drilled into the tunnel's concrete ceiling and bolts were then inserted, along with pressure-injected epoxy.

He said it was possible that inspectors would find "some generic flaw in the systems that are used for designing these panels."

The increased focus on the bolts came as inspectors, at the Turnpike Authority's direction, began reviewing the city's entire highway system.

The $14.6 billion, long-running and highly troubled Big Dig project buried the city's antiquated central artery and send traffic underneath downtown. The project has been plagued by leaks and other problems linked to faulty construction and oversight, and the state is seeking millions in compensation from its overseers.