Dr. Robert B. Pond, Jr. (ret.)Loyola University Maryland
Presented to the Eastern Virginia Chapter of ASM International on January 30, 2024
The tunnel and bridge transportation system in Boston (12/31/2007) is an amazing feat of engineering. The Bean Town additions and renovations to the major traffic arteries (the Big Dig) have cost more than any civil project in the history of the USA. Offsetting this engineered marvel of the modern world is a chronical of mismanagement, corruption, greed, and excessive costs including the loss of a life. Rob Pond was a member of the technical team that reviewed, interpreted, and advised the Governors of Massachusetts on the safety conditions and future maintenance needs of the Big Dig. He provides a look behind the curtain of the Big Dig creation, construction issues, and the results of the engineering safety review.
Dr. Rob Pond (BES, Johns Hopkins (JHU); MS and PhD in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pennsylvania) taught materials engineering at the Naval Academy, Loyola University Maryland and JHU. He provides industrial courses for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the American Society of Materials International (ASMI) where he is a Fellow (FASM). He also engaged for more than three decades in government research and in industry where he ran a laboratory for Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. for thirteen years. As a forensic consultant he has analyzed more than 1,500 material failures and testified for courts more than 150 times.
This was a presentation by Dr. Robert Pond, Jr. to the Eastern Virginia Chapter of ASM International and the Central Virginia Section of ASM on January 30, 2024. Dr. Pond was a member of the independent review board that examined the design and safety of the Big Dig and other tunnels and bridges in Boston after startling deficiencies became obvious.01:00:00
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