Bechtel deems Big Dig leaks routine

Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the private company that manages the Big Dig, said yesterday that plugging leaks in the Interstate 93 section of the tunnels will take "months, not years," as a routine part of finishing the $14.6 billion project.

"The leak problem is well under control," a letter Bechtel sent to reporters said.

The five-page letter represents Bechtel's first detailed effort to address publicly the issues raised in recent news stories about the leaks.

While the letter does not discuss the number of leaks in the tunnels -- state officials estimate there are currently 500 -- it asserts that "no waterproofing system is perfect."

"Chasing water that inevitably seeps through walls and joints is a normal part of construction," the report says. "The spots where water enters are systematically located and sealed one at a time."

The letter emphasized that some water enters the tunnel through portions of the project under construction and "open to the weather."

Matthew J. Amorello, chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which oversees the project, has said engineers have been unable to determine how much water is coming from open sections of the project and how much is seeping through imperfections in the tunnel walls and joints. The latter kind of leak is more troublesome because it suggests a broader, and potentially more lasting, problem.

On Nov. 10, the Globe reported that the tunnels had hundreds of leaks, based on interviews with outside engineers brought in by the Turnpike Authority to investigate a large breach in a tunnel wall Sept. 15.

In an interview with the Globe, Jack K. Lemley, one of those engineers, told the Globe that repairing the leaks would take "years, even a decade." Lemley said one problem is that water migrates to another weak spot in the wall and leaks through.

Bechtel officials said the company's program to "locate and seal normal wall and roof leaks" is making significant progress and should be "substantially complete" this summer, along with the rest of the Big Dig.

The letter described the Sept. 15 leak as an isolated incident and said an investigation is ongoing to determine why the problem in that part of the tunnel wall was not corrected earlier. It said four other small sections of the tunnel wall will also need to be repaired, but none is as serious as the section from which the Sept. 15 leak sprang.

During the two weeks in which the story dominated local news, the company had generally declined to comment, other than to issue a short statement stressing that the tunnel is structurally sound.

Andrew Paven, a spokesman for Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, late last week disputed a report by state Inspector General Gregory Sullivan that estimated the cost of repairs at $35 million. Paven called the report "flat out wrong," but in its letter yesterday, Bechtel did not provide its own estimate.

The letter also does not address in detail the question of who is ultimately to blame, saying only generally that the cost of the repairs for the September leak, and the four similar ones, will be shouldered by "responsible parties, not the project or the public."

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly released a statement yesterday saying that Bechtel is minimizing the problems.

"Let's be clear. The problem here is more than just" the Sept. 15 breach, Reilly said. "There are significant leaks in the roof as well.

"What we need is for the responsible parties to step up, design a solution for both the panels and the roof, and fix the problems at no cost to taxpayers."