Boston Big Dig review released

A “stem-to-stern” review of the Big Dig highway system that was ordered after a fatal collapse last summer has found the roads, tunnels and bridges in downtown Boston are well built overall, but some repairs are urgently needed.

Gov. Mitt Romney released the results Friday of the $4.5-million review.

The review found that the original fire-detection system wasn’t being used because it responded too slowly to temperature increases, so tunnel operators were spotting fires by relying on information from motorists’ cellphone calls, Romney said.

The $14.6-billion project’s Operations Control Center, where people hired to spot problems in the system work, has lost power twice since the July 10 accident in which a falling ceiling panel killed Milena Del Valle, 39.

The workers in the operations center didn’t have flashlights because there were backup systems, Romney said. He said a computer software glitch, now being fixed, prevented an immediate switch to battery power and then backup generators. The outages left workers in the dark for 15 minutes or more.

“The total story is this: In the opinion of the experts, the Central Artery system is fundamentally safe, but there are corrective actions to be taken,” Romney said.

Despite the concerns, the governor said he felt more confident driving around Boston than he did in July, when he ordered the review of every road, bridge and operational system in the Metropolitan Highway System.

At the time, he accused project overseer Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff of shoddy workmanship.

The safety review was conducted primarily by engineers from the Illinois consulting firm, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., and Schirmer Engineering Corp. of Chicago.

Among the worst problems was a bend in a bracket holding a cable to a bridge -- the cable holds back 1 million pounds of pressure. Inspectors also found problems with the concrete, including cracking in supports.

Romney said he considered the most troubling finding to be a lack of a “comprehensive, regular inspection program.”