[SunkenCiv]

[kinoxi]

I kind of liked it when I drove through.

[Lurker]

This wouldn't be the first time someone cut corners on the fasteners and it ended up killing someone.

I used to be in the nut and bolt biz.

When someone wants to shave points off a bid, that's the first place they look.

L

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

If that's cheap and fast, I'd hate to see expensive and slow.

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[mamelukesabre]

this is ridiculous. First of all, the length of the bolt should not make any difference as far as i can tell. Second, why are these people contacting this guy by phone out of the blue like this? The engineer should not have even answered their questions. The people that fabricate the concrete panels would have their own engineers to determine how they should be anchored. The connections would be designed by the panel fabricating company, not the firm that designed the tunnel. Any engineer contacted should know this and should automatically suspect that these people are looking for someone to bypass a previous decision by the concrete engineer simply to circumvent costs associated with ensuring a safe design. Everyone culpable involved deserves exactly what they get.

I worked as a concrete engineer for a year and as a research tech in a concrete testing lab for 2 years.

[JohnLongIsland]

this is the reason hyannis orcinus wins every election by 85% of the vote, now why lurch wins reelection is still a mystery.

[Wiseghy]

Are you saying that state governments and their agents would commit fraud on the public by obviously manipulating and twisting safety results into an outrageous lie? That's amazing!

BTW, how is national healthcare coming along?

[SamAdams76]

All of this aside, the Big Dig is still a colossal failure in my opinion. My commute to Boston is still hellish. Coming down I-93, traffic is backed up all the way to Somerville by 6:30AM and all the way back to Rte 128 by 7-7:30AM. Just the way it was before the Big Dig. In short, this multi-billion dollar boondoggle has done absolutely nothing to relieve the congestion.

What they should have done is kept the elevated highway in place so that we would have twice the capacity we have now and maybe the tunnel portion could be reserved for those who are just passing through the city. Now that would make a difference.

Speaking of the elevated highway coming down, I thought we were going to have green parks after it was torn down with leafy trees and pedestrian-friendly paths leading to Fanueil Hall and the waterfront? Instead, they have spent two years pouring ugly, thick concrete slabs surrounded by thick wire mesh fences and it is still an absolute nightmare trying to be a pedestrian in that area.

[FreePaul]

This is the first article I've read about this that gives much detail. Still not enough. Until now I thought that the bolts had just failed in tension. Seems that this wasn't "bolt failure" but failure of the epoxy joint. From the photograph accompanying the article it appears that the bolts are threaded into the ceiling rather than held in place by epoxy. Are the "anchors" into which the bolts are screwed epoxied in place? Not clear in the text.

Looks as if there is plenty of blame to go around. I don't see anyone mentioned in this article who is clean. Any time a project manager is trying to make a name for himself everyone else suffers. Some more than others as we now see. If bolting failed one time in any test I was involved in we would have found out why and corrected the problem. The idea of continuing when a large percentage failed is inviting disaster.

[Mark was here]

A bolts strength is determined by it's diameter, and thread engagement should be a minimum of one and a half times the diameter. If someone wanted to discuss bolt strength, by discussing the length alone, I would question why the question in the first place.

[martin_fierro]

[Hardastarboard]

The brains and talent visible in this thread are AMAZING!! I doubt that anyone at DU would even understand the issues that several of you have raised. But, of course, we conservatives are too dumb to get the subtle nuances of John Kerry's use of English.

I am so proud to be a member of this forum!

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

"Cheaper, faster path led to failure [ Big Dig ]"

It seems like every single new weapon system program manager that shows up at the pentagon has memorized the mantra "Better, Faster, Cheaper." And we all know how famously some of those programs have succeeded.

One wag in my office has a triangle on his whiteboard with each side labelled better, faster, and cheaper. His tagline says" You can pick any two sides; some programs give you only one."

You can do it right, or you can do it over.

TC

[mewzilla]

First thread...

Section of ceiling tumbles in tunnel (Boston Big Dig I-90/I-93, One Dead)

There are people at all three levels, local, state and federal, who need to be held to account for this.

[mrsmith]

"little room for mistakes by the inexperienced construction crew that would erect the ceiling."

My goodness, buried in the article's lies is a little of the truth!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks everyone for making this a successful ongoing topic, and Merry Christmas w/ Happy New Year.

http://home.att.net/~hideaway_today/t041/xmas_santa.swf

[sasquatch]

Ping

[G Larry]

Bet the Mafia cleared 25% of the total cost of the dig.

[razorback-bert]

I thought and thought and can't se how the length of the bolt has anything to do with something hanging from the ceiling except for how close to the ceiling do want the hanging panel.