Doubt aired on safety of I-93 tunnels

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.

''I am now unable to express an opinion as to the safety of the I-93 portion of the Central Artery," Lemley added. ''My modified position is necessary due to a revised understanding of the magnitude of problems that we became aware of following our testimony on November 30, 2004, and the recent failures reported in the local newspapers."

In his letter, Lemley said his change of position was also driven by the apparent lack of any formal plan by project officials to address the leaks.

Doug Hanchett -- a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority, which oversees the $14.6 billion project -- said authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello had yet to receive Lemley's letter.

However, Hanchett stated: ''We believe the tunnels are perfectly safe. If we ever had a reasonable inkling otherwise, we'd close the tunnels. Public safety is always our first concern."

Since the disclosure last November that there are hundreds of leaks in the Big Dig's tunnels, Amorello has repeatedly sought to assure the public the tunnels are safe, sometimes citing the opinions of Lemley and George J. Tamaro, another internationally recognized slurry wall specialist who has been investigating the leaks. Asked for his opinion on the safety of the tunnels yesterday, Tamaro declined comment.

In his letter, Lemley said that for weeks project officials have prohibited him from gaining access to crucial documents concerning the leaks, such as 10 years of field notes from engineers assigned to the project during construction and more recent data from testing of the walls.

''During December and early January, we continued our investigation with limited access to data connected to the Project's slurry walls and leaks within the facility," Lemley's letter said. ''From approximately mid-January, we have received no new information from the Project."

The allegation of stonewalling echoed a complaint by retired Judge Edward M. Ginsburg, who until January led a two-year effort on behalf of the Turnpike Authority to recoup money lost as a result of construction flaws and mismanagement.

Ginsburg said yesterday that in recent discussions Lemley had indicated his intention to withdraw his previous assertion that the tunnels are safe.

Ginsburg said Lemley didn't want to ''run the risk that, if something happened to a member of the public," that the Turnpike would defend themselves by saying a specialist like Lemley had vouched for the tunnels' safety.

Lemley has worked on massive tunnel projects all over the world, including the English Channel tunnel.

He was hired by Ginsburg in late 2003 to lend expertise to Ginsburg's effort to recoup money from contractors for flawed construction and mismanagement on the massive project.

On Feb. 1, however, Ginsburg's operation was transferred to the office of the attorney general, which state lawmakers believe will conduct a more aggressive and credible cost-recovery effort. Lemley's firm, as well as Tamaro's, is still negotiating what role it may play in the new effort. Lemley's company, Ginsburg said, is still owed roughly $850,000 from the Turnpike Authority for the work performed under Ginsburg. Hanchett, the Turnpike spokesman, said he could not immediately comment about any money due Lemley.

The Globe first reported on Nov. 10 that the Big Dig's I-93 tunnels are riddled with leaks. The majority of those leaks are located where the tunnels' walls meet the roof.

A Feb. 16 memo from Kenneth M. Mead, inspector general of the US Department of Transportation, said that there were 438 such leaks at that time. Those leaks have damaged the tunnels' fireproofing material, some of which fell onto the northbound tunnel's breakdown lane recently.

A subsequent investigation found 40 areas where water and ice had damaged the fireproofing.

Lemley, reached in his Boise office yesterday, declined comment.

At the legislative hearing on Nov. 30, Lemley was asked by state Representative Joseph Wagner, who cochairs the Joint Transportation Committee, whether the tunnels were safe for motorists.

Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat, called it the ''overriding question" resulting from the revelations of the leaks problem.

''I have no reason to believe there is any risk to public safety," Lemley told lawmakers, although he did say that he had had ''limited opportunity" to conduct an investigation. ''I don't think the public should be alarmed about what we have found so far. The complex appears to me to be safe."

At that time, project officials had only identified about four sections of tunnel wall that contained the construction defects, caused by pockets of extraneous material, that make them prone to leaking. Now, project officials say there at least 44 of those defective wall sections, and the investigation of the walls is ongoing.

''The failure of the fireproofing, the significant number of now-known problem panels, and our inability to secure information concerning the handling of the defects known to exist in the facility has caused me to take this position," Lemley's letter said.

Eric Fehrnstrom, communications director for Governor Mitt Romney, said that Lemley's letter is ''clearly cause for concern."

''This is no time for the political leadership on Beacon Hill to remain silent," Fehrnstrom said. ''Governor Romney believes that the best way to restore public confidence in the Big Dig is with new leadership."

Romney has called for Amorello's resignation over the leaks, but the authority's chairman has refused.

Sean Murphy's e-mail address is smurphy@globe.com. Raphael Lewis's is rlewis@globe.com.