Firm Calls Big Dig Safe

The company overseeing the construction of the beleaguered Big Dig said Monday that repairs to fix widespread leaks would take months, not years, and denounced public officials for rushing to judgment on the $14.6-billion project.

“The Big Dig is safe and sound,” Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the project manager for the underground highway, said in a statement issued in response to reports of mismanagement and shoddy engineering.

The rebuttal states that it will takes months to stem the flow, not decades, as has been reported. Bechtel/Parsons said most of the flow would cease when construction ended next year.

Already, according to Bechtel/Parsons, the flow has been reduced to the equivalent of six garden hoses, which the company said met industry standards for water flow in tunnels.

The statement was issued after two weeks of escalating news reports about the extent of the leaks in the Interstate 93 tunnel under the city, as well as the fact that Big Dig officials knew about the alleged problems seven years ago but did not make them public or solve them.

Republican Gov. Mitt Romney has called for the resignation of Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Chairman Matthew J. Amorello, who is in charge of the Big Dig.

Both Romney and state Atty. Gen. Thomas Reilly, a Democrat, have denounced the management of what is already the most expensive road project in U.S. history.