Reilly seeks grand jury inquiry on tunnel

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has asked for a special grand jury to hear testimony about last month's fatal tunnel accident, stepping up a criminal investigation that already has reviewed 245,000 pages of subpoenaed construction documents to understand why the six-year-old ceiling suddenly collapsed in the Interstate 90 connector.

The grand jury, expected to be seated Oct. 3, is likely to hear testimony from construction workers and their supervisors, as well as ceiling designers, to determine whether anyone who worked on the ceiling should be charged with criminal negligence, according to a law enforcement source. Until now, state troopers and FBI agents have interviewed some workers informally, the source said, but many others have declined to talk on the advice of their attorneys.

State attorneys ``are going to interview as many people as possible. Those who don't voluntarily cooperate they will subpoena to the grand jury," said this source, who asked not to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.

The request for a grand jury, contained in a letter to the state jury commissioner earlier this week, reflects Reilly's ambitious effort to hold individuals criminally accountable in the July 10 accident. Winning a conviction would be a long shot, however, legal analysts say: Reilly would have to prove not only that people built a dangerous ceiling, but that they knew it and went ahead with the project anyway. In Massachusetts, prosecutors have won criminal negligence convictions only in extraordinary cases, such as the 1942 Cocoanut Grove fire in which 492 people died because ceilings were flammable and exits were blocked.

The source said the attorney general hasn't determined whether anyone in the tunnel project should be prosecuted, but ``they're following the evidence where it leads them." Documents obtained by the Globe show that before the ceiling was installed, numerous designers and construction officials questioned the wisdom of suspending the heavy drop ceiling with epoxy bolts glued into the tunnel's concrete roof. Documents also show that the joint venture managing the project, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, chose not to reinspect most of the epoxy bolts, including those where the accident later occurred, after bolts unexpectedly came loose elsewhere in the connector in 1999.

State investigators have focused on the 20 ceiling bolts that popped out in the accident, dropping concrete slabs onto a car passing below and killing Milena Del Valle , whose family yesterday sued nine firms and a government agency alleging wrongful death. Investigators for the attorney general have used a special scope to videotape inside the holes where the bolts pulled free, and they have sent concrete samples from where the bolts pulled out to a federal lab for analysis.

To understand the findings, Reilly's office has hired several experts in epoxy bolt construction, including Ronald A. Cook , an engineering professor at the University of Florida at Gainesville and the former chairman of a concrete industry committee that wrote safety standards for the use of epoxy bolts. ``This is a thorough evaluation," said Cook, who declined to discuss what he has analyzed.

Meanwhile, up to 15 staff members in the attorney general's office have spent the last seven weeks reviewing the 245,000 pages of Big Dig documents obtained with subpoenas sent to 16 companies, including Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and Modern Continental Construction Co., which built the ceiling. The source close to the investigation said most companies have complied with repeated information requests, but some have not, giving Reilly more reason to call for a grand jury, where executives can be pressured to produce paperwork or explain why they haven't done so.

``We have made significant progress on our investigation into the tragic tunnel collapse," said Reilly spokeswoman Meredith Baumann , who declined to discuss specifics. ``We . . . are determined to hold the responsible parties accountable and to get answers for the family of Milena Del Valle."

State attorneys are also looking into suing Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff for damages from the accident. Under the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's contract with Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff in effect in 1999 when the tunnel ceiling was built, the joint venture can't be liable for more than $150 million unless employees were ``grossly negligent." The source close to Reilly's investigation said that's easier to prove than criminal misbehavior, meaning it's more likely the attorney general will get money from Big Dig companies than jail time for their employees.

Officials at Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff declined to comment except to say they are fully cooperating with the investigation.

Scott Allen can be reached at allen@globe.com.