Staffing, procedures cited in HRBT-backup report

HAMPTON

A review panel examining the Hampton Road Bridge-Tunnel flooding has completed its work and cited staffing and operating procedures as its top concerns.

The independent panel wants the Virginia Department of Transportation to examine the tunnel staff's qualifications, training and complement, and make adjustments.

It also wants VDOT to identify the biggest risks to maintaining safe tunnel operations and to develop detailed operating procedures and responses for handling emergencies such as flooding, fire and structural failure.

The panel on Thursday drafted 16 proposed changes to VDOT's maintenance, operations and personnel procedures to avoid another tunnel shutdown. They include: Seek outside inspections and reviews, enhance maintenance and replacement plans for equipment and convert from manual to automated logging of tunnel incidents.

Dennis Heuer, VDOT's Hampton Roads district administrator, urged caution when it comes to spending money to replace equipment and to hire external consultants when there's sufficient in-house expertise.

"We could go bankrupt replacing every asset just because it's old," he said. "It has to be risk-based."

Flooding from a burst water main below the tunnel roadway closed the HRBT's westbound lanes on July 2, the day before the holiday weekend, causing gridlock on many South Hampton Roads thoroughfares.

State highway officials have said human error is the reason the main break went undetected for hours. The problem was finally spotted when water spilled onto the roadway. Other signals, such as the automatic switching on of fire pumps that feed the broken main, should have alerted staff long before, VDOT Commissioner David Ekern said.

Disciplinary action was expected to be taken against one or more employees, Ekern said last month. VDOT officials will not offer details, citing privacy.

A third of the panel's recommendations address staffing. Suggestions include formalizing job training of tunnel operators in addition to on-the-job training, keeping a maintenance worker on duty at all times and organizing duties so staffers become specialists at their jobs instead of bouncing between duties.

Panel chairman Phil Tarnoff, director of University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Technology, said a final report from the panel will be ready in about a month. He said VDOT leaders have indicated they plan to take the recommendations seriously and that they will be acted on.

Dwayne Cook, VDOT operations manager, urged the panel to couch the recommendations so that they suggest VDOT build on and improve its current operations.

"A lot of these systems are already in place," Cook said.

Meanwhile, Cook said work to improve the HRBT's emergency alert and response systems continues.

Water-level alarms to detect flooding in the lower chamber are being installed in the HRBT. The Downtown and Midtown tunnels already have the alarms, and officials are considering whether to add them to the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel.

Cook said the equipment to measure the flow of water through the fire mains will be installed within the month. A consultant has been hired to develop a plan for removing greater amounts of water from the tunnel than the current equipment can handle.

"None of our tunnels have the capability of pumping out a million gallons of water - none of them were designed for that," Heuer said.

Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com