U.S. & World

BOSTON (CBS) ― The political battle over the fatal Big Dig tunnel collapse is moving to the courtroom as embattled Massachusetts Turnpike board Chairman Matthew Amorello fights to keep his job.

A Supreme Judicial Court justice scheduled hearings for Wednesday on a lawsuit filed by Amorello to keep his $223,000-a-year chairman's post after 12 tons of concrete ceiling panels crushed a car July 10, killing 39-year-old Milena Del Valle.

Gov. Mitt Romney has for years has been calling for new leadership at the Turnpike Authority, and has intensified his criticism since the tunnel collapse. Also before the court Wednesday is a lawsuit against Amorello filed by Romney appointees to the Turnpike board who claim Amorello has usurped their duties.

Romney plans a hearing Thursday to consider demoting Amorello.

"The governor has invented a power he does not have," Amorello said in the 12-page lawsuit, filed Monday.

Romney says the ceiling panel collapse shows that Amorello is incapable of overseeing the $14.6 billion highway project. But Amorello's lawsuit contends the governor isn't able to show that his alleged mismanagement rises to the level of 'malfeasance, misfeasance, or willful neglect of duty' — a standard the court set when another governor tried to fire two members of the authority's board.

On Wednesday, The Boston Globe reported that the on-site safety officer for the Interstate 90 connector where falling concrete crushed the motorist warned his superiors in 1999 that the tunnel ceiling could collapse.

John Keaveney wrote in a two-page memo to Robert Coutts, senior project manager for contractor Modern Continental Construction Co., that he could not "comprehend how this structure can withhold the test of time."

"Should any innocent State Worker or member of the Public be seriously injured or even worse killed as a result, I feel that this would be something that would reflect Mentally and Emotionally upon me, and all who are trying to construct a quality Project," Keaveney wrote.

In an interview with the Globe, he said his superiors at Modern Continental and representatives from Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the private sector manager of the Big Dig, assured him that such a system had been tested and was proven to work.

Andrew Paven, a spokesman for Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, declined to comment to AP on Wednesday and efforts by the Globe to reach representatives of Modern Continental late Tuesday were unsuccessful. Company spokesman did not return immediately messages left early Wednesday.

The Big Dig project, which buried Interstate 93 under downtown Boston and linked Interstate 90 to Logan International airport, took more than a decade to complete with delays and cost overruns. It has been plagued by leaks, falling debris and problems blamed on faulty construction.

After the fatal ceiling collapse, the governor took over the inspections, repair work and decisions on when to reopen the tunnels from the Turnpike Authority after filing emergency legislation.

On Tuesday, Romney said the discovery of more problems is delaying the reopening of the Big Dig tunnels. He originally had hoped that at least one of the two tunnels closed since the accident could open by this week, but now says he won't "guesstimate" on a timeline for repairs.

"What's happened is there continue to be revelation of new issues, new problems," Romney said.

The governor said one of his main concerns are three massive ceiling fans that may be held aloft with an inadequate fastening system.

Romney said his engineers are not only worried about the epoxied bolts used to attach the fans — two of which weigh 6,200 pounds and one 4,500 pounds — but the entire apparatus fastening them to the connector tunnel where Del Valle was killed.

Romney had previously talked about the fans as potential trouble spots because of the bolt-and-epoxy system, which has been the focus of investigations surrounding the collapse. The ceiling panels that crushed her car were held up by epoxied bolts.

He said the mounting list of concerns include three loose bolts in a ceiling panel in the westbound entrance to Ted Williams Tunnel, which extends Interstate 90 between downtown Boston and Logan International Airport, and the discovery of another location in the tunnel network where the epoxy-and-bolt system was used.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)