Bechtel Needs to Big Dig Itself Out of This Hole

[See You Next Wednesday]

What are the odds that Bechtel will have to really and truly answer for their $2 billion consulting fee on this project?

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[Goober McTuber]

On a related note, my drywall ceilings are still intact in both my former and present homes. (Memo to Dinsdale: neener, neener).

[indyfrisco]

My drywall ceilings keep cracking. Try to patch the shit up and it just looks awful.

How the hell do you patch the cracks in the ceilings to where it looks seamless? Do I need to mud the whole damn thing and repaint?

[Goober McTuber]

You'll have to ask Dins. I did such a fine job with mine, they've never cracked.

[Dinsdale]

OK...

If the drywalls ceilings keep cracking in the same place over and over, it's a structural issue, and nothing short of major, major upgrades are going to help.

The ground moves, and the original excavation eventually settles...how much, depends on the quality of the excavation work.

In the short-term, you can patch cracks with painter's caulk(the stuff designated at "25 year," which will be the cheapest stuff the hardware store has...don't use any of the "better grades"(the cheap stuff will offer better paint adhesion iin this situation, which probably sounds funny, but that's the way it is). Wipe off all of the extra caulking with a wet rag immediately after applying it, leaving only the caulking in the crack, and removing all of the rest...this will avoid it looking asslike after painting.

Other than that, my best advice is...get used to it. You just descibed alsmost every house around these parts.

Even at the homefront, there's a crack that's been fixed too many times to count. And every time there's an earthquake bigger than about 2.5, it opens back up(never a major quake here(yet), but lots of little tiny ones). It's always where two different rooflines come together. Just be glad you don't live in a less geologically stable region, like the West Coast, where almost all ceilings crack sooner or later. Heck, last 3.5er here, the front door trim was ripped off the wall the next time the door was opened. That's the breaks.

Once the house begins to flex in a particular spot, it tends to keep flexing there, pretty much forever. Using a flexible caulking and repainting will band-aid it as well as anything.


My other best advice -- find something better to worry about.

[indyfrisco]

Yeah, but I'm one of those obsessive freaks that sits there thinking the crack is staring at me so I have to fix it. Caulk makes sense though. I've just used drywall patching. Maybe some sandable caulk will do the trick and then a repaint.

Thanks. Problem fixed. You can lock this now.

[Dinsdale]

Maybe some sandable caulk will do the trick and then a repaint.

OK, since IF is my Golf Forum Boy and all, I'll try again...

In the short-term, you can patch cracks with painter's caulk(the stuff designated at "25 year," which will be the cheapest stuff the hardware store has...don't use any of the "better grades"(the cheap stuff will offer better paint adhesion iin this situation, which probably sounds funny, but that's the way it is). Wipe off all of the extra caulking with a wet rag immediately after applying it, leaving only the caulking in the crack, and removing all of the rest...this will avoid it looking asslike after painting.

[Moorese]

the crack is staring at me

Me too.

[Dinsdale]

And on the original topic --

I'm actually slightly familiar with public works construction projects.

I'm guessing the laws in Mass. are different from those in Oregon and Washington, although I'm not sure, since I've never worked on one or done associated work on any in Mass.


But, it depends on the contracts, obviously. On some projects, the government body in charge hires an architectural firm to pretty well do everything, and washes their hands of it. In other cases, especially in larger municipalities, they have their own civil engineers who oversee and inspect.


In this case, none of the news articles I've ever read in this ongoing fiasco provide enough information to really get to doing some hardcore armchair-finger-pointing. Copies of the pertinent portions of the contract would be helpful, but meaningless to about 98% of the public, which is why I assume these contracts haven't been published in the media(publics works contracts are public record).

But one thing's for absolute certain...there's a whole buncha blame to go around. I have no firsthand knowledge, but I've been told there's no more corrupt city in the country than Boston, and public works projects are notoriously corrupt...hell, I've seen that much with my own eyes, albeit on a much, much smaller scale.

An investigation is in order, starting at the bottom(where I doubt much blame will be found, and it sounds like people with safety concerns did their professional and moral duty to report them to superiors), and working its way to the top, where it sounds like things were criminally rotten.

Any time there's that much money for the taking, there needs to be at least a few altruistic people with a conscience around overseeing it. On large projects like that, money spent on high-quality inspectors is money well spent.

[PSUFAN]

Arch's crank is staring at me

Me too.

[Goober McTuber]

Yeah, but I'm one of those obsessive freaks that sits there thinking the crack is staring at me so I have to fix it.

Paint the entire room black. You won't even notice the crack.

Or you could paint a ginormous vagina on the ceiling, and the crack would become functional.

[Dinsdale]

Even at the homefront, there's a crack that's been fixed too many times to count. And every time there's an earthquake bigger than about 2.5, it opens back up

3.8 last night...and the ceiling crack didn't open up too badly. Just a little bit.

[UcantPwns]

I checked this out years ago and the $64,000 I received in campaign contributions from Big Dig contractors told me the tunnels were okie-dokie..


Sin,
Current Mass AG and future Gubernatorial hopeful... Tom Reilly

[PSUFAN]

Even at the homefront, there's a crack that's been fixed too many times to count. And every time there's an earthquake bigger than about 2.5, it opens back up

3.8 last night...and the ceiling crack didn't open up too badly. Just a little bit.

From what I saw, that's all you needed.

--IRIE "DIGGIN' BIG" CACKSOS

[quacker backer]

the crack is staring at me

Me too.

I don't want to know....