May 17, 2007 12:52 am US/Eastern
I-Team Finds Driving Range In Big Dig Building
by Joe Bergantino
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
An indoor driving range – at the Big Dig – has become the focus of two investigations.
Our I-Team has learned that either State Police or Big Dig workers set it up inside a building near the site of last summer's deadly tunnel collapse.
A short distance from where that ceiling collapsed in the Mass Turnpike connector tunnel sits a Big Dig ventilation building.
Its official purpose: to vent exhaust from the Big Dig tunnels in South Boston.
The unofficial purpose: Inside was an indoor golf driving range, with a net at least one story high.
Who set it up and who used it?
The Turnpike Authority is blaming State Police assigned to a barracks right near the ventilation building. Those troopers who would have had access because they work for the Turnpike Authority.
State Police tell us they're conducting an internal investigation. The focus: Did State Police troopers set up the driving range and practice their golf shots? And if they did, were they on duty or off duty?
The Turnpike Authority says it's investigating, too. The focus: Were Big Dig workers involved in this indoor playground, and were they golfing on company time?
The Turnpike Authority, which is responsible for the ventilation building, says Big Dig operations and maintenance employees were in and out of that building and knew about the driving range.
But as you might guess, they didn't tell turnpike officials about it.
Authority boss John Cogliano says he's outraged and will be talking with State Police the first thing Thursday morning.
What do we have here? One more sorry tale of waste and mismanagement – one many would say is par for the course when it comes to the Big Dig.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Stumble It!
Comments