I posted this yesterday as a comment to David’s excellent Mitt *hearts* Matt post that discussed Willard’s campaign contributions to Amorello, and his 56% cut in the 2007 CA/T Operations and Maintenance budget. The outrageousness of this piece, in light of subsequent events, nagged me overnight, so I decided to post it again for those who didn’t dig down to comment 20 in that thread. The last paragraph is the most interesting and, I think, touches on the trust issues raised by Charley and David.
“The engineering specialist who led the investigation into leaks in the Big Dig says he can no longer say with confidence that the Interstate 93 tunnels are safe to drive in, according to a letter obtained by the Globe.
“The March 9 letter from prominent tunnel consultant Jack K. Lemley to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority represents a startling reversal from testimony Lemley offered last November on Beacon Hill, when he told worried lawmakers: ”I have no reason to believe there is any risk to public safety” for those driving in the Interstate 93 tunnels.
“Since then, Lemley wrote, new information has surfaced that more than 40 large sections of tunnel wall contain construction defects and that fireproofing material has been damaged by leaks and fallen into the roadway.
“In addition, he wrote, project officials have blocked him from obtaining records and data related to those problems.” [my emphasis]
This engineer may have seen “new information,” or he may have just decided to stop playing the game that everyone from 10 Park Plaza to the State House had bought into for so many years.
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The Big Dig is just one giant example of what happens when a political and institutional culture bends way over to accommodate comfy relationships among politicians, federal and state bureaucrats, contractors, labor, etc. Eisenhower talked about the military/industrial complex, and this is the Commonwealth’s equivalent.
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There should be lengthy hearings – to try to reduce the grandstanding, they should take place after November 7 – to examine the design, the materials, the workmanship, accountability, budgeting, oversight, etc. The gubernatorial election becomes critical if we want these hearings to result in something other than a nicely-bound report and a great big collective, “Oops! Oh well” from Beacon Hill.
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A closely related issue:
I don’t want eyes to glaze over and have BMG readers napping and drooling on their keyboards, so I won’t go on at length, but Massachusetts has the worst structure of Metropolitan Planning Organizations in the country. For years, the Federal Highway Administration has tried to get the state to cede some control of highway funds to these federally-mandated regional organizations. But Beacon Hill power brokers want the huge pot of federal highway money controlled from 10 Park Plaza. Even after supposedly more democratic reorganizations of each transportation planning organization in the Commonwealth, the state retains just over half of the weighted votes in every region.
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I believe that the incestuous Big Dig/ Turnpike/ MassHighway/ contractors/ politicians relationship led to the cost overruns on the Big Dig and continue to screw the outlying regions of the Commonwealth when it comes to design of transportation projects and distribution of funds.
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I don’t know that a gubernatorial candidate can campaign on this, but some fundamental reform of our warped transportation system could be one positive outcome out of this whole wasteful, tragic saga.