The Official Big Dig Lawsuit

Breaking news out of the tunnels today is that the inevitable legal action is now official. The family of Milena Del Valle, the Jamaica Plain resident killed when ceiling tiles in the I-90 connector tunnel crushed her in July, are suing in a wrongful death case. The legal action names the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, and eight other companies who worked on the project as responsible for the death of Del Valle. There was little doubt that the lawsuit would come about. There is just cause for the action to be taken, the question remains what the ramifications might be for the parties involved. The family of Del Valle didn't specify the amount they're seeking in today's filing. The money is not at issue in this case. We're already $15 billion deep and valuing life is impossible. The bigger issue here is public safety and accountability. This lawsuit could help to assess the responsibility of the MTA and the construction firms involved for this specific incident. Hopefully this could also serve as impetus for further investigation and resolution, we might be satisfied if we got some placement of blame where blame was due. In the mean time perhaps they could fix the known problems as they slowly conduct the "stem to stem" safety check of the project.