MassDOT inspection of Boston tunnels finds no ‘immediate’ issues after concrete fell onto Mass. Pike

Inspection crews examined more than 150 locations in the tunnel system across Boston and found no pressing issues after concrete fell from the ceiling above the Massachusetts Turnpike and narrowly missed vehicles late last week.

A patch of concrete, measuring about four inches by four to five feet, dropped from the Prudential Tunnel into the middle and left lane of the Turnpike around 2 p.m. Friday. Video of the incident showed the debris landing in between moving cars, some of which drove over it.

Five crews fanned out overnight and inspected 154 locations across the Ted Williams Tunnel, the O'Neill Tunnel, the Sumner Tunnel, the Callahan Tunnel and the Storrow Tunnel, plus the rest of the Prudential Tunnel.

A Department of Transportation spokesperson said the inspections "identified no additional areas requiring immediate repairs."

Workers chipped out concrete in some spots, and added shielding in the area of the Prudential Tunnel underneath Huntington Avenue where debris fell.

Officials blamed the dangerous incident, which did not cause any injuries, on the recent stretch of precipitation followed by melting and refreezing ice.

"Concrete came loose within that joint. When you had weather today and things start to thaw out, the ice that had been causing pressure on that joint and had been holding that concrete in place loosened up and that allowed some of that concrete to fall," Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver told reporters Friday.

Gulliver said the issue was "very localized." Crews had been inspecting the Prudential Tunnel for about a month and a half before the incident, he added, but that work "has just not progressed to the point yet where they had gotten to this particular bridge joint."