Posted on 03/16/2011 2:27:38 PM PDT by massmike
State transportation officials say they have discovered some corrosion in the lighting for the Big Dig tunnels in Boston.
Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan said Wednesday one of the 110-pound fixtures fell but did not hit any cars.
Mullan said there are about 23,000 light fixtures in the tunnels, and corrosion has been found in fewer than two percent. He said there’s no danger to the public.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
So you only have to worry about 460 of them,
I can rest easy now.
No danger to the public? These 110 pound lights are going to continue to corrode and fall but there will be a study of the problem. 2% of 23,000 means there are 460 more corroded lights up there, that they know about.
How unionized is Boston?
Has Nintendo come out with the Big Dig driving game,
where you have to avoid random falling light fixtures
and tunnel flooding?
Mullan said there are about 23,000 light fixtures in the tunnels, and corrosion has been found in fewer than two percent. He said there’s no danger to the public.”
Right. It’s not like a ceiling is gonna fall on someone. Nothing to see here. Move along. Wait a minute. 2% of 23,000 light fixtures ... 460 fixtures that could fall? Sorry, but that sounds bad, doesn’t it? And why didn’t he just say there were 450 or so fixtures? Sound like too much? 2% sounds like less? Only the kids from Groton School would figure it out?
What would a 110 pond fixture do to a windshield? To an open convertible? To tires? Cause an accident? Sheesh?
I can’t win the lottery to save my ass, but I could get hit with one of those lights if the chances were 1 in 150 guzillion.
A guzillion would be the amount of beer in 37 trillion buckets.
I understand that if you hit one of those lights at speed, you wouldn’t have any concerns at all. EVER!
Union Job what possibly could go wrong?
Probably on the same day your insurance and drivers
license expired.
Gubmint cheese fed logic.
I haven’t been through the big dig tunnel in a while now.
Is there still water pouring out of the walls?
I drove through the tunnel one night and it looked like Niagra Falls in there.
Beantown unions are going to love this.
“hit one of those lights at speed,”
What’s the speed limit down there in the underworld?
I imagine that virtually all the subcontractors on the Big Dig were signatory with a local union and that the overall project had a PLA (Project Labor Agreement) calling for signatory contractors in exchange for a no-strike/no-stoppage agreement by the local trades council.
Perhaps someone in local Boston construction market knows for sure, but that was my impression.
That being said, the quality of union and non-union work in heavy and commercial construction work is not divided up along union versus non-union lines. Both the signatory firms and the non-signatory firms have a small percentage of workmanship problems in certain cases. The project to project culture is more in control of the build quality even from the same firms.
The system worked.
Captain of the Port in Boston has determined that for vehicles carrying more than six passengers for hire, that whilst in the Big Dig tunnel, you are on the navigable waters of the US, and as such are a Subchapter T vessel.
Please have your certificate of inspection ready as your USCG inspector boards your car. Gather on the bow, er, I mean the hood of your car during the inspection, and please declare any weapons you may have aboard prior to inspection.
Floatation device, and PFD’s for everyone on board is required.
The entire project was built by unions - whose motto is “Build it poorly now and we can rebuild it poorly in just a few years! Go AFL-CIO!”
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