Overtightening eyed as cause for flaws in Big Dig tunnel nuts

The Boston Globe ^ | October 22, 2015 | Nicole Dungca

[kiryandil]

Union guys over-tightened the nuts to create moar work for Union guys in the future...

Brilliant! BRILLIANT!!!

[Grams A]

Obviously there are some cracked nuts walking around on two legs - wonder what they will do to fix them.

[867V309]

The poor Big Dig will always be with us . . .

At least until the Big Crack leads to the Big Flood resulting in the Big Closure.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I guess all the commuters can then drive through the grass in that big park where the freeway used to be.

[Squantos]

True..... salt air that bad in Boston to get above the lighting in the tunnel or is it just runoff from streets above ? Question from the high plains of Texas as I dunno nuthin about boston.....

[Still Thinking]

I hate when there’s flaws in my nuts.

[Smokin' Joe]

There was a brief experiment up here with Chinese Drill pipe. That crap didn’t last long.

[octex]

Not over tightening. ...Poor engineering specs, quality control and procurement practices seeking lowest costs. Result: cheap fasteners of poor quality and strength.

[WVKayaker]

Oh, I thought is was talking about eye flaws on big nuts...

[cynwoody]

The Big Dig cost more than the English Channel Tunnel, but there are still traffic jams along its route every rush hour.

The Big Dig was just a scheme to enrich the union thugs and the crony crapitalists.

[Viking2002]

Were any of those workers given torquing instructions in their native language?'

They tried, but the pictograms took up too much paper, and animal sacrifices to the gods of nut-torquing weren't allowed.

[o-n-money]

Ted Kennedy’s true legacy.

[jkeith3213]

Most steel in U.S. is of U.S. origin not imported, imported steel makes about about 28% of U.S. market even now while imports are way up this year. Most of imported steel is imported as finished goods. U.S imports largest amount of steel from South Korea, then Japan, Brazil, then China, with about twice as much from South Korea as China.

[jkeith3213]

I’m not saying they didn’t use Chinese steel, but its unlikely as its not on the west coast, and Chinese imports have almost no price advantage over domestic steel outside of specific U.S markets as transportation is such a big part of the cost. If China’s economy wasn’t about to implode so that they pushed out steel below cost, it would cost more to import Chinese steel than use domestic steel.

I wouldn’t put it past liberals or government to do stupid things and waste money though.

[Scrambler Bob]

My failures when overtighening break the bolt, not the nut.

I go with poor materials due to graft.