New England News

Friday, August 17, 2007

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Zakim Bridge's warped steel plates a cause for concern

WASHINGTON  -- Concerns about warped steel anchor plates on the Leonard Zakim Bridge in Boston are being raised by a new federal report.

 A U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general report says the anchor plates posed a higher safety risk than state officials found in a safety review of the Big Dig last November. The report says the state agreed to take immediate follow-up action.

"We concluded that the warped anchor plates posed a higher safety risk that needed immediate follow-up," the inspector general's report said.

Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen, chairman of the five-member Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board that oversees the $14.798 billion Big Dig, said Thursday that state officials have already addressed the concerns cited in the report.

"It suggests we were derelict when we did exactly what they suggested," Cohen said of the report. "Clearly we are paying an extraordinary amount of attention to these issues."

Six warped plates were found on the bridge, the report said.

Cohen said the state asked the company that did last year's review to take another look at the anchor plates, and inspectors found the warping was due to welding during construction, not stresses afterward. He said that information was provided to the inspector general.

"What we are going to do under phase two is to go back and see if there is a retrofit that needs to be done," he said. "We want to make sure the bridge is in proper condition."

The anchor plate problem was not disclosed during a 2005 inspection of the bridge, according to the federal report.

"Such warping should have been identified in the project's quality assurance process if it had occurred during construction, but we found no evidence that it was identified," the federal report said.

Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., said the federal report was a "red flag" for project overseers.

"Certainly it raises concerns that we need to keep a close eye on this problem," Capuano said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The inspector general's report also called for "a more rigorous analysis" of the impact of potential earthquake conditions on Big Dig tunnel ceiling systems. It urged more analysis of the adhesive anchors supporting ceiling panels in the Ted Williams Tunnel, which the state has been inspecting since the fatal collapse in the nearby tunnel. The report said the state has agreed to the steps.

The National Transportation Safety Board found last month that the fatal collapse could have been avoided if designers and construction crews had considered that the epoxy holding support anchors for the panels could slowly pull away over time. Powers Fasteners Inc., the company that provided the epoxy, was charged last week with one count of involuntary manslaughter. The company's president said it was being unfairly targeted.

The inspector general's report also called for additional testing to assess the effects of high-temperature fires on Big Dig tunnels. The report cited the possibility of a two-truck accident that could create three times as much heat as single bus or truck fire.

The inspector general said high temperatures could have a serious impact on adhesive anchors used to secure ceiling panels to the tunnel roof in the Ted William Tunnel.

"A high-temperature fire could cause the anchors to fail," the report said.

Capuano said he was told by federal officials that the tunnels meet current standards for earthquakes and fire concerns, and their recommendations went beyond those standards.

The Big Dig project, the most expensive in U.S. history buried much of the city's highway network in tunnels and took over a decade to complete.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)