State To Review Lighting In Big Dig Tunnels

State Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan said the Big Dig's tunnels are safe, despite the collapse last month of a lighting fixture at the entrance to the I-93 Northbound tunnel.

The light is eight feet long. It weighs 110 pounds. It fell on the morning of Feb. 8. It didn't hit any vehicles. It's the first lighting fixture to fall on a Big Dig roadway since the first tunnel opened. Mullen said inspectors have looked at each of the fixtures in tunnels over the roadways.

"We've got a few thousand more to go. We've inspected 95 percent of all of the fixtures that are in the tunnels, and we will complete the inspection not later than a week from Friday," he said.

The lighting fixtures are made of powder-coated aluminum that is corroding.