"Precast ceiling panels can be hung without any problem whatsoever. This installation was a disaster.
"
Yup. Had they installed hanger hardware before pouring the darned thing, they'd have had no problems at all. I know just what the rebar looks like in that concrete, and I don't know how you'd ever drill the hanger holes in that mess. And they couldn't.
If they had just designed the hangers into the original reinforcement design, all of this would have been avoided.
Epoxy my red butt! Epoxy's great, but there are just too many unknown factors in a situation like this. And never mind stupid workers who mix it improperly or skimp on something, or drill short holes and cut hanger bolts off to fit.
Big construction like this is always full of worker errors and intentional shortcuts. Feh!
The Ted Williams Tunnel, running under the harbor from South Boston to East Boston, was the first part of the Big Dig to get underway. On Dec. 22, 1992, workers lay steel rebar inside the tunnel tube in preparation for the pouring of the concrete floor. Globe Staff Photo / David L. Ryan
Apparently they started using sleeves like this for tunnel sections that were not yet cast.
http://www.simpsonanchors.com/Catalog/mechanical/blue-banger/index.html
If the "dead" space was needed for exhaust reasons, as mentioned, hanger straps would automatically been designed in. The whole thing sounds like a poorly conceived "make work" project.