"Official says he erred on Big Dig; Problem with light aired 5 weeks later" by Eric Moskowitz and Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff / March 18, 2011
The state’s top transportation official acknowledged yesterday that he erred in waiting five weeks to tell the public — and the governor — about the 110-pound light fixture that crashed from the ceiling of the Thomas P. “Tip’’ O’Neill Jr. Tunnel on Feb. 8.
Related: Some Big Dig light fixtures found damaged by corrosion
Responding to criticism from lawmakers and other officials, Transportation Secretary Jeffrey B. Mullan said he should have consulted with the governor’s office and gone public earlier. Instead, the Department of Transportation did not inform Governor Deval Patrick until Tuesday, after inspectors had already discovered corrosion affecting a few hundred of the 23,000 lights that illuminate the O’Neill and other Big Dig tunnels.
With Patrick away on an international trade mission, Mullan told the governor’s staff in a State House meeting last Friday about the corrosion problem and the temporary repairs made by his department. He said he briefed the governor by phone in London Tuesday night, telling Patrick he planned to hold a press conference the next day.
“Knowing what I know now, with the benefit of hindsight, I made an error. And I should have released this information sooner, even without the benefit of perfect information — that’s the difficult balancing test that public officials need to make,’’ Mullan said in an interview yesterday. “That won’t happen again.’’
Mullan said he prides himself on transparency and wanted to avoid creating unnecessary panic, not conceal a problem. But he now recognizes that, with the Big Dig in particular, the public should know about problems immediately, given a troubled history that includes a fatality in 2006 when a section of the tunnel ceiling collapsed....
And we should be given the truth, too!!
Related: The Ultimate Cost of the Big Pit
And that is "liberal" Massachusetts!!
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Also see: Big Dig facing hurdles in trying to recover damages for lights
You will not be getting any money back, taxpayers.
