May 30, 2008

Communications providers bypass Big Dig’s hidden duct system

Boston

Boston’s Big Dig engineers thought they were making a wise investment by spending millions of dollars building a series of hidden compartments that were meant to someday carry unsightly utility cables through the tunnels.

But now that cellphone companies are finally wiring the tunnels for service, they bypassed the ready-made ducts and began driving holes into the already-leaking walls of the US$15 billion system to anchor a mish-mash of cables.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, which runs the tunnels, at one time valued the duct system at US$13.9 million. Now, it sits mostly unused, according to a recent story in the Boston Globe.

The reason: The conduits are too narrow in places to fit the cellular cables inside them, turnpike officials said. And even if they weren’t, the cellphone companies that are wiring the tunnels say it is actually cheaper to do the job without using the pricey ducts, and that Big Dig officials wanted to charge them too much money to use them.

“This was bad planning on the part of the Big Dig’s designers and past administrations, and another example of the lack of oversight at the project,” Mac Daniel, Turnpike Authority spokesman, said in a statement released to the Globe in response to a reporter’s questions.

“We’re stuck with that decision, however, and are now focused on getting the long-delayed cellphone service installed in the tunnels as soon as possible,” Daniel continued.

Aside from being a potential waste of millions of dollars, the conduits have also played a quiet role in the years-long delay in bringing cellphone service into the tunnel system. The Turnpike Authority has tried to recoup the cost of the conduits in the form of rent money from the cellphone companies; the cellphone companies have said they don’t need the conduits and have adamantly refused to pay.

The disagreement resulted in a negotiating standoff that the cellphone companies seemed to win. The current wiring project, which depends on epoxy to hold the bolts in place, was so counterintuitive that federal highway officials initially declined to approve it, questioning whether the wires put too much stress on the walls. Epoxy failure was blamed for the fatal ceiling collapse in 2006. The federal officials eventually approved it for the wiring, agreeing that the walls could support the weight of the cables.

A drive through the Interstate 90 connector shows that metal brackets have been installed on the tunnel side walls every few feet. In some areas, workers have begun hanging wires.

Still, Daniel said that constructing the duct system was not a waste of money. He said that the ducts were built to adapt to technologies 20 to 30 years in the future and that they may still be used for lighting, electrical work, or safety projects.

But not cellphone reception. Negotiations between the Authority and the cell companies lingered for years, without results. The turnpike wanted the consortium of cellphone companies to pay US$10 million to wire the tunnel, then at least another US$15 million for use of the conduit space, through a combination of up-front payments and rent, according to state documents. (Big Dig officials have never said how much it cost to build the conduits, but they estimated the replacement cost at US$13.9 million).

The cellphone companies refused the terms and eventually hired experts who said the duct system built into the tunnels was unnecessary for the project and that cell service could be provided more cheaply by mounting cables directly to the walls, according to documents.

As the two sides bickered, motorists lost calls whenever they entered the tunnels, even as cheaper and older tunnels throughout the U.S. offered uninterrupted cell service, and political leaders got fed up.

In mid-2006, the state legislature passed a law that required the Turnpike Authority to come to an agreement with the cell companies and build cellphone capability by the end of that year. The law also designated the former state Department of Telecommunications and Energy to determine what fair rental costs would be, even though that department had not previously regulated cellphones.

Before the utility commission ruled, the Turnpike Authority and the cell companies came to an agreement that allowed the cellphone companies to wire the tunnels themselves, without using the duct system. The cell companies said it would cost them US$7.6 million for installation under the second plan.

The companies have also agreed to pay the turnpike a total of US$1.6 million for initial tunnel rights and US$560,000 a year in rent.

Michael D. McNally, whose company was originally selected by the Turnpike Authority to wire the tunnels using the ducts on behalf of the cellphone carriers and later lost the contract, asserted that the companies’ decision to bypass the duct system will not make the project any cheaper, and that the ducts are large enough to fit the cell cables. McNally is now suing the Turnpike Authority.

DCN News Services

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