Big Dig Settlement Nearer

The Boston Globe has an article today suggesting that the eventual settlement in the Big Dig lawsuits could be “huge.”

“Once that jury has spoken, each defendant found responsible willbear a ‘scarlet letter’ likely to mark them permanently for recklessand grossly negligent conduct,” warned the Del Valle lawyers Jeffrey A.Denner, Mario Garcia, and Leo V. Boyle in urging the defendants tosettle the case before it goes to a jury.

The article also contains some of the factual allegations on which the plaintiffs rely in predicting huge punitive damages.  If proved, the predictions seem not unreasonable:

For instance, documents show that Big Dig managers at Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff and designers from Gannett Fleming cut by half thenumber of bolts they originally planned to use to hold up the ceiling,while significantly increasing the ceiling’s weight by making it out ofconcrete. These moves made the ceiling cheaper, the lawyers said, butless safe.

When construction began in June 1999, workers forModern Continental Construction Co. made numerous mistakes installingthe ceiling bolts, secured to the tunnel roof by epoxy, that weakenedtheir strength, the lawyers wrote. In addition, crews may have used thewrong epoxy, a fast-setting type that has 25 percent less strength thanspecified for the job.

–BC