3 senators want Big Dig manager barred

Three state senators renewed their call yesterday for the governor to disqualify Big Dig manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff from receiving any more contracts from the state.

Senators Steven Baddour, Marc Pacheco, and Bruce Tarr said the report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board left no doubt that the company failed in its responsibility to assure the safety of Massachusetts motorists.

"We're paying them millions upon millions of dollars to do the job the right way, and they didn't," said Pacheco, Democrat of Taunton and chairman of the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight.

Baddour, Democrat of Methuen and cochairman of the Joint Committee on Transportation, told the Globe that after the tunnel collapse July 10, 2006, he looked at the ceiling himself.

"You could see where the bolts had slipped," he said. "You didn't have to be an engineer. You didn't have to have an advanced degree. If they had done the most basic, cursory inspections, they would have shut down the tunnels. That's inexcusable neglect."

The senators, who said they had contacted the governor's office about their request, said that only administration officials, not legislators, can disqualify a contractor from state work.

Either the secretary of administration and finance or the commissioner of capital asset management can begin the process, they said, which requires a public hearing at which the contractor can fight the "debarment."

Governor Mitt Romney rejected a similar request last year.

A spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick said he will not consider the debarment request until he knows whether Attorney General Martha Coakley will seek criminal charges against any of the contractors who worked on the project.

"The governor has made it clear that the NTSB findings relative to Bechtel and others are very disturbing," said Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan. "But he is awaiting the attorney general's findings before commenting on this proposal."

Bechtel spokesman Andrew Paven declined comment.