Will new concern put a halt to Boston GP? (2nd Update)
Lawn on D Chief Strategy Officer Johanna Storella said that IndyCar would "rent the space at an estimated price tag of between $18,000 and $20,000 per day." Villani & Battenfeld noted it is "unclear exactly how long Lawn on D would be closed for the race." BOSTON HERALD
11/26/15
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| A big fire in this area could bring down the convention center says MCCA's public safety director |
Mayor Martin J. Walsh says he was caught off guard by concerns raised by public safety officials and detailed in a Herald front-page report yesterday that a crash in a stretch of a planned IndyCar race could cause "catastrophic" damage to the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
"The first time I heard about it was in the newspaper when I read it. No one has brought the concern to us in the city," Walsh told reporters after emails from Massachusetts Convention Center Authority officials surfaced in the Herald.
"My team's on it right now, since the article this morning, seeing what we can do about it," he said.
The race is slated to weave through the Seaport next Labor Day weekend, and IndyCar organizers have said they reworked a deal with the city to pay for all municipal costs. Walsh also cautioned against casting the risk of a crash as a deal-killer.
"I don't know if that's the main reason here not to move forward with IndyCar," he said.
The Herald reported yesterday that Robert Noonan, the MCCA's public safety director, raised the warning with then-director James Rooney in May, saying he had "serious concerns" about the course running through a section of Fargo Street that goes under the convention center.
He said any "explosion in specific locations … could be catastrophic to the above North Structure of the BCEC," Noonan wrote to Rooney in an email obtained by the Herald through a public records request.
Grand Prix of Boston officials have said they've since agreed to pay for a risk analysis, using a company of the MCCA's choosing.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who has been monitoring negotiations between race officials and a number of state agencies, said the report on safety concerns "was not one (he's) seen before" either. He said he intends to follow up, and described the state's discussions in recent weeks with organizers as "robust."
But he indicated that any of the agreements they need to ink with MassDOT, the MBTA and other state agencies are not close to being finalized despite Walsh urging Grand Prix officials to complete them.
"There's still a lot of work that has to get done on that," Baker said. "A lot."
Grand Prix officials didn't dispute Baker's characterization but said yesterday they were "pleased" with the progress so far.
"While we agree with Governor Baker's assessment that there is still work to be done," they said in a statement to the Herald, "we are confident that we will reach the necessary agreements with all agencies involved." Matt Stout/Boston Herald
11/25/15 A crash or explosion on a stretch of a planned IndyCar race course running beneath the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center could cause "catastrophic" structural damage, a top public safety official warned in a private email reviewed by the Herald.
The warning was sent by Massachusetts Convention Center Authority public safety director Robert Noonan to former MCCA boss James Rooney last May, just two weeks before race promoters and Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh unveiled plans for the annual Labor Day race.
In another email, Rooney wrote to an MCCA official that promoters, Grand Prix of Boston, had repeatedly put off their requests to negotiate and instead were relying on Walsh's clout to get the agency to agree to a deal.
"The Mayor wants to do this," Rooney wrote. "The grand prix folks are trying to use that as leverage with us."
The new revelations are the latest twist in the planned Boston IndyCar race, which has been marred by delays and concerns over whether public money would be used to support the race.
Walsh is now trying to get the MCCA and other state agencies to reach a deal with Grand Prix of Boston.
On May 5, Noonan wrote he had "serious concerns" about the course going under the normally closed section of Fargo Street running under the convention center because it's near the agency's command operations and "more serious concerns" about a "potential wreck" in that area.
"An explosion in specific locations along the roadway could be catastrophic to the above North Structure of the BCEC," Noonan wrote to Rooney in the email released in response to a public records request and reviewed by the Herald.
Noonan said his concerns were based on that location's "structural importance" to the convention center building that was identified by a "threat and vulnerability assessment" conducted by the MCCA.
Despite the concerns, race organizers for the Boston Grand Prix did not change the planned course, where IndyCars are slated to race at speeds of up to 170 miles per hour around the convention center and Seaport District.
An MCCA spokesman declined to release details of the threat assessment but in response to questions by the Herald said that the concerns over Fargo Street are being addressed with IndyCar Boston.
"As part of the negotiations with Indy Car, and to ensure the highest level of safety, the MCCA has asked that IndyCar conduct an engineering study and assessment on the use of the roads around the BCEC, including Fargo Street," spokesman Terence Burke said.
A spokesman for Grand Prix of Boston also said the race promoters have "agreed to conduct a risk analysis, at the request of the MCCA, using the company of their choice. Grand Prix of Boston is covering the cost."
In the new emails, it's clear that MCCA officials have been repeatedly frustrated by what they felt was a failure by Grand Prix organizers to address their concerns about the race.
After Walsh's tourism director Ken Brissette sent Rooney an invitation to the Grand Prix launch party, Rooney wrote this terse response: "I do not have a deal with these guys." Boston Herald