BOSTON – MassDOT is reassuring drivers that it was an isolated incident in a now-viral video that shows the floodwaters rising quickly inside the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston as drivers carefully inched along during the evening commute.
Drainage clog
“This was a drainage clog that caused this issue. This was a very intense rainstorm,” State Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said Thursday afternoon.
The floodwaters reached 3 feet deep and stretched across two lanes as the torrential rain came down at the tail end of rush hour traffic Wednesday. Gulliver said MassDOT deployed pump trucks and crews to the tunnel, but unclogging the drain was a challenge.
“There’s a lot of road debris that comes off of trucks and comes off of cars on a regular basis that ends up building up,” Gulliver explained. “Again, this is a tough one to get to. This is about 15 to 20 feet in the line, we believe. It took some time to clear. And as a result, this took a little bit of time to get going again.”
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