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[กมลวัลย์]

2 to plead guilty in Big Dig concrete case

By DENISE LAVOIE - AP Legal Affairs Writer

Published: Wed, Jul. 08, 2009 03:53PM

Modified Wed, Jul. 08, 2009 03:53PM

BOSTON -- Two former managers of a Big Dig contractor pleaded guilty Wednesday to being part of a conspiracy to deliver substandard concrete to the massive highway project.

Six former managers of Aggregate Industries NE Inc. were indicted in 2006 on charges they falsified records to hide the inferior quality of more than 5,000 truckloads of concrete.

They were accused of recycling concrete that was too old or already rejected by inspectors and in some cases double-billing for the loads.

Gerard McNally, a former quality control manager, and Keith Thomas, a former dispatch manager, pleaded guilty to 12 charges, including 2 conspiracy counts, five mail fraud counts and five counts of filing false reports in connection with a federal highway project.

A prosecutor said in court Wednesday that as part of their plea agreements, both McNally and Thomas have agreed to cooperate against the other four men and will testify against them during their trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday in U.S. District Court.

The men who are going on trial are: John Farrar, of Canterbury, Conn., a former dispatch manager; Robert Prosperi, of Lynnfield, a former general manager; Marc Blais, of Lynn, a former dispatch manager; and Gregory Stevenson, of Furlong, Pa., former district operations manager.

Laywers for McNally and Thomas would not comment on their plea agreements. Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 1.

In 2007, Aggregate pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to pay a $50 million settlement to end civil and criminal investigations into substandard concrete it delivered to the project. Under the settlement, Aggregate was allowed to avoid debarment, a sanction that would have barred the company from bidding on state and federal contracts.

Formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project, the Big Dig buried Interstate 93 in tunnels beneath downtown and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport with a third tunnel beneath Boston Harbor.

The $15 billion Big Dig - considered the costliest highway project in U.S. history - was plagued by construction problems, leaks, falling debris and huge cost overruns.

On July 2006, Milena Del Valle and her husband were driving through an Interstate 90 connector tunnel when 26 tons of concrete ceiling panels crashed onto their 1991 Buick, crushing to death the 39-year-old mother of three.

But the case against Aggregate was never connected to this crash.

The NTSB's July 2007 accident report said the wrong type of adhesive was used to secure the concrete slabs in the tunnel ceiling, and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority contributed to the accident by failing to implement a timely tunnel inspection program.

[กมลวัลย์]

Minn. seeks recovery of $37M in bridge payouts

By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

Monday, August 10, 2009

(08-10) 13:31 PDT Minneapolis, MN (AP) --

A design firm and a construction contractor shouldn't have to reimburse the state for $37 million paid to victims of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, attorneys for the companies told a Minnesota judge on Monday.

The state wants Jabob Engineering Group and Progressive Contractors Inc. to pay the money, saying they helped contributed to the collapse. It also has sued an engineering firm that studied the bridge before it failed.

A federal investigation ultimately identified a problem in the bridge design, and the weight of construction materials piled on the bridge, as key factors in the Aug. 1, 2007 collapse. Jacobs is the successor to the original bridge designer, Sverdrup & Parcel, and PCI was doing repaving work on the bridge when it fell.

Jacobs and PCI asked Hennepin County Judge Deborah Hedlund on Monday to dismiss the state's claims, saying the $37 million the state paid was a settlement to satisfy its own liability. The companies argued that the state can't now claim reimbursement from them.

Hedlund, who is presiding over a series of bridge collapse lawsuits, didn't immediately rule. The parties are also waiting to hear whether she will allow Jacobs to be legally immune because design work on the bridge took place more than four decades ago.

Jacobs attorney Kirk Kolbo argued that even if the firm doesn't get the immunity, it doesn't owe the state money.

"The state has no right of recovery," Kolbo said. "It made payments voluntarily."

PCI attorney Ted Roberts said the compensation fund set up by Minnesota legislators that ended up paying the 179 victims and survivors was not an advance on money the companies might eventually be ordered to pay the victims.

"The Legislature has already made decisions that in any other situation would have been decided by a judge," Roberts said. "It's got no connection to what we owe, if anything."

But the attorney representing the state, Al Gilbert, said settling with the victims was the responsible thing for state officials to do even if they believed the contractors were the ones at fault.

"They were looking out for the public interest. They put money in the hands of the survivors. Otherwise they would have waited for years," Gilbert said. "Equity demands that parties who are actually culpable pay."

Besides the state's lawsuits against Jacobs, PCI and URS Corp., the company the state had hired to study and inspect the bridge, PCI has also sued the state for allegedly failing to tell the company about the bridge's dangers. One PCI employee was killed and more than a dozen were injured in the collapse.

None of the cases are expected to go to trial before late next year.