Current News |
Inspections on Bridges
Are Falsified
By SHAILA DEWAN
Published: February 8, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/us/08bridge.html?ref=us
ATLANTA — A veteran bridge inspection
team for the Georgia Department of
Transportation falsified checks of
dozens of bridges in the metropolitan
area, including 11 previously rated as
needing repair or replacement,
department officials said Thursday.
Of those 11, at least one had already
been replaced and the falsified
inspection did not reflect the new
bridge, said David Spear, a spokesman
for the Transportation Department. Not
all of those 11 were structurally
unsound, Mr. Spear said. Bridges can be
slated for repair or replacement if they
lack upgrades like sidewalks.
The officials believe the deception was
an attempt to meet a federal reporting
deadline and began about three months
after a fatal bridge collapse in
Minneapolis in August, which increased
the pressure. In December, a
quality-control team noticed
discrepancies, including the fact that
the replaced bridge had not shown up in
the reports, and saw that photographs of
many of the bridges were taken on the
same day, according to time/date stamps,
Mr. Spear said. Normally, inspectors are
expected to complete 12 bridge
inspections a week. This team was
working at a rate of 18 a day.
The team’s supervisor, David Simmons,
acknowledged falsifying 54 reports, but
the officials suspect that as many as 68
more might have been faked.
“We are out reinspecting them as fast as
we can, using other folks,” Mr. Spear
said.
Mr. Simmons, who worked for the
department for 29 years, was granted
retirement after the deception was
discovered, but the department is
contesting that decision. The department
is working with the state attorney
general to determine if any laws were
violated.
Mr. Simmons’s inspection partner, Gerald
Kelsey, a nine-year veteran, has not
acknowledged wrongdoing. He told The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which was
the first to report that some of the
bridges involved needed replacement,
that he was a “victim of circumstance.”
Mr. Spear confirmed Mr. Kelsey’s
explanation that Mr. Simmons had taken a
significant amount of time off last
year, which may have contributed to the
team’s falling behind.
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