Neil Swidey

While I might have been better off reading one of Swidey's magazine articles, this story was engaging enough even in its extended form.

> Based on the contract, Kiewit wouldn’t get paid for a section unless all the utilities had been stripped out and it was in what homebuyers and sellers refer to as “broom-clean condition.” After all, the tunnel’s ventilation, electrical, and transportation systems were so unwieldy that it would take months to dismantle them. It was hard to imagine how Kiewit could have delivered a broom-clean section if those utilities were still in place. But it was just as hard to imagine how crews could be safely sent in to remove the plugs once all those utilities were gone.

> Hoss was furious at Harald. Even after the divers had complained repeatedly in previous days about problems they were experiencing with the breathing system, Harald kept sending them back into the tunnel on the same system, reassuring them that they’d be fine.

> Is there any way we can use one of those diffuser heads to get air into the tunnel from the other side? He worried that the question might be laughed off for its naivete. Instead, one of his top engineers said the idea of off-shore ventilation was promising. It owed its viability, in large part, to the work the divers had done before Billy and Tim were killed. Because the divers had managed to remove three of the fifty-five safety plugs, the first three risers now offered a direct connection between the tunnel and the seabed.

> As far as Parker could tell, Harald stood to gain no bonus, no piece of the pie. Any financial gains for Norwesco would have accrued most directly to owner Roger Rouleau … The designer, contractor, construction manager, and tunnel owner all knew about the plug problem for years but failed to deal with it, instead sloughing it off on a small diving subcontractor. (Of course, Norwesco had chosen to take on the job even though two other established dive companies had declined to bid because of safety concerns.)… (meer)

I was in charge of getting these very rugged men to the tunnel site on Deer Island was former prison for the city of Boston,a former quarantine stop for Europeon immigrants,when clearing the Island for the treatment plant they uncovered numerous gravesites including Indian. A very mysterious place and only a mile from downtown Boston, all the islands in boston harbor are somewhat creepy as Poe and Dennis Lehane have written of them,after the prison was cleared they were practically over run by rats and extremely large ferile cats a very wild place for sure today it is a political hack's dream… (meer)

This book turned out to be about much more than the event references in the title: Five men, construction divers, encountered a disaster while trying to complete an engineering project in Boston Harbor. While Swidey does a fine job presenting all the heartbreaking details of the disaster's genesis and impact on the lives of those affected, he also goes a long way toward shining a light on the often-overlooked laborers whose efforts — and sometimes lives — are spent in building up the infrastructure all of us depend on.… (meer)