Governor names Ill. firm to lead Big Dig audit

An Illinois engineering firm that assisted New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will lead the first phase in a sweeping safety audit of the entire Big Dig.

Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. will be paid $4.5 million to examine the Central Artery Project over 90 days in search of ``areas of potential greatest risk."

Romney ordered what he calls a ``stem to stern" audit after Milena Del Valle's death in the Interstate 90 connecter tunnel and has given the engineering firm wide latitude to question virtually every aspect of the project.

``We simply cannot live in a setting where a project of this scale has the potential of threatening human life, as has already been seen," he said.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner analyzed the collapse of the World Trade Center towers after they were hit by hijacked planes in 2001 and has also helped study the 1981 Kansas City Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse, the 1995 Los Angeles subway tunnel collapse, and the crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island in 1996.

Romney said he passed on four other firms under consideration for the contract because they had conflicts of interest from previous work they had done for the Big Dig or the Turnpike Authority.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner did about $28,000 of work on the Central Artery Project between 1993 and 2003, but Romney said the total was small enough that it did not present a conflict of interest. If analysis of any of its work is required, an outside firm will do it, the governor said.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner, based in the Chicago suburb of Northbrook, first plans to look at parts of Big Dig tunnels and ceilings where failure would probably result in a collapse , to determine whether all preventive measures have been taken, Romney said.

It will also examine Big Dig structures vulnerable to buckling and those exhibiting signs of failure or distress, in addition to the project's ventilation and fire safety systems.

In the second phase, fixes stemming from the firm's analyses will be implemented. Wiss, Janney, Elstner will not seek to assess blame for any problems uncovered, said Romney.

``The audit will examine all the elements and systems of the Big Dig using a combination of independent structural analysis, hands-on inspections, and field testing," Romney said.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner's executive vice president, Gary J. Klein, acknowledged yesterday that the Big Dig audit would be a formidable challenge, but said that ``we think we have the horsepower" to complete it on time.

Romney also named a five-member panel yesterday that will help him evaluate the results of the safety review and provide technical guidance on other aspects of ongoing state and federal investigations.

The panel will be led by Charles D. Baker Sr., an adjunct professor at Northeastern University and a former US Transportation Department official. Its other members will be: MIT engineering professor Andrew J. Whittle; Robert E. Skinner Jr., executive director of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences; Francis J. Lombardi, chief engineer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; and Robert Pond Jr., chairman of the engineering science department at Loyola College in Baltimore.

Raja Mishra can be reached at rmishra@globe.com.