Thursday, 4:30 PM
Romney formally moves to remove Amorello
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
Governor Mitt Romney this afternoon announced that he filed a bill of particulars to legally remove Matthew J. Amorello as chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority after 12-tons of concrete ceiling tiles fell on a car last week and killed a Jamaica Plain woman.
“We believe the failures of the Turnpike authority are so extensive and so clear that Chairman Amorello should be removed through my action,” Romney said at an afternoon press conference.
The governor declined to detail the specific charges against Amorello, saying that it was “personnel issue” and “out of respect for [Amorello] as an individual” the proceeding would remain confidential.
Romney made the announcement after telling reporters at the accident site that anchor bolts engineers want to use to reinforce ceilings in Big Dig tunnel passed a field test.
Officials hope to have Ramp A, which links D Street in South Boston to Interstate 90 east, open to traffic early next week. It will then take another week or two to complete work on Ramp D connecting I-90 west to Interstate 93, Romney said.
Amorello has defended his job as Turnpike Authority chairman since the collapse, saying he stabilized the cost of the $14.6 billion Big Dig project.
The concrete ceiling panels that fell last week crushed a car, killing Milena Del Valle, 38. Her husband, Angel Del Valle, 46, crawled out of the vehicle with minor injuries.
Amorello, 48, faces a hearing in the governor’s office on July 27 at 9 a.m. The former Republican state senator was appointed chairman of the Turnpike Authority by Governor Jane M. Swift in February 2002. He served as the ranking minority member of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation before he became the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department in 1998.
Romney had been at been odds with Amorello long before last week’s partial tunnel collapse. The governor first called for the chairman to resign in November 2004 after the Globe reported that there were leaks in Big Dig tunnels.
The pair squared off again last year when Romney asked the state Supreme Judicial Court if he could demote Amorello from the chairmanship after there were claims that project managers had impeded an investigation of the leaks.
Last week hours after the concrete ceiling tiles fell, Romney went after Amorello at his first press conference, saying that the chairman’s “leadership failures” have “undermined public confidence.”
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly joined the call for Amorello to step aside, saying he had become a “distraction.”
In the Legislature, a friendly place for the former state senator, the leadership publicly urged him to considering leaving his post. Senate President Robert Travaglini, Amorello's top backer on Beacon Hill, said he should give "serious consideration'' to "modifying his position.''
Amorello has repeatedly rebuffed calls for him to leave.
