Massachusetts residents driving through Boston were met with a watery surprise when a storm caused the Ted Williams Tunnel to flood with as much as three feet of water last week. The tunnel, which was built during Boston’s infamous Big Dig, allows Interstate 90 to run under the city, reportedly flooded after a catch basin clogged, causing water to accumulate across about 400 feet of road, WCVB reports.
“That’s a lot of water,” MassDOT Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver told WCVB. “It’s about 130,000 gallons of standing water that was on the roadways so quite a bit to deal with.”
If you’re worried something similar may happen again, though, Gulliver made sure to emphasize that the clog has been dealt with, and this was simply “rare occurrence.” In fact, more rain is actually a good thing for the tunnel, and this flooding was probably the result of Boston not getting enough rain recently:
Initially, officials suspected a faulty pump caused the flooding, but Gulliver said all the pumps were inspected and were fine.
Gulliver said maintenance crews are responsible for clearing drains and the drain was last cleared two to three weeks ago. The drought, however, can actually make things worse because debris is not being routinely washed away and it could build up.
“When you have as long of a drought as you have, they’re not getting flushed through the system as frequently. Things break down. I’m not saying that’s exactly what happened here but I do believe that’s a contributing factor,” he said.
Crews will be checking the system through the weekend to make sure there was nothing that they’ve missed.
Despite the danger of driving through floodwaters, video shows drivers were undeterred. If you’ve driven in Boston before, you probably get it. Sure, you risk engine damage, but that’s probably safer than dealing with some angry Masshole who hates having to drive through the city, the weather for slowing him down and you for getting in his way. So far, no one has reported any injuries, either from the flooding or any subsequent road rage.
Gulliver also added, “I want to assure people the tunnel systems are safe. This is a very, very rare occurrence that we have that kind of flooding. And again, to to be clear, that that is surface water runoff.”
