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Wall at Old South Church cracking, shifting
By adamg on Thu, 12/04/2008 - 10:08pm
Alecia Batson reports on a crack that starts at the foundation, goes at least 30 feet up and is large enough at some points to put your hand in. And it's on the Dartmouth Street side, right where the MBTA is doing its never-ending Copley work, which is why she's written an open letter to the T (speaking for herself, not the church) asking what it's going to do about it:
... The organ should not be played, now, as it could prompt large portions of the plaster to fall. This directly affects the Boston Secession concert that will take place there tomorrow evening, Friday, 5 December 2008, as the concert makes use of the organ. Will my friends' concert take place? We do not yet know. Tomorrow, structural engineers will determine if the sanctuary is even safe for habitation. Will church services take place this coming Sunday? Only time will tell. ...
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Comments
Old South Crack
Shades of Jane Langton's "Divine Inspiration."
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140173765/ref=nosim
Photos of the cracks
Photos of the cracks and update on the structural integrity.
http://wbztv.com/local/old.south.church.2.880642.html
T blames elevator-shaft work, stops Copley construction
The Globe reports on a joint press conference between Rev. Nancy Taylor and MBTA Assistant General Manager Charles L. O'Reilly.
and the Globe gives credit to Alecia and you
Last paragraph:
Woah, now that the Globe
Woah, now that the Globe finally learned to use hyperlinks, I'm glad to see them linking to both UH and to the local blogger who got the scoop.
You get what you pay for.
Unfortunately, the T deals with the lowest bidder on almost all of their contracting services (which is significant). This is what you get when you go cheap with engineering and construction (not to mention 6 year construction time for changing a light bulb). I think we end up paying more in the end because they go with the crappiest vendor they can find.
So there's a large crack
So there's a large crack which penetrates the entire thickness of the wall, yet it's "not clear whether there is any structural damage to the church"?
Structure
You can have holes in things and still have them be structural. Like holes (properly placed and sized) in joists for plumbing to pass through.
But structural or not, it doesn't sound good.
Think "Jenga"
The first few pieces come out just fine without upsetting the structural integrity of the whole. "Structural damage" doesn't mean "damage to any part of the structure", but instead "damage which compromises the entirety of the structure".