Three firms negligent in tunnel collapse

BOSTON, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Two firms have offered to pay "well north" of $300 million to avoid criminal charges in a fatal tunnel collapse in Boston's Big Dig, it was reported Sunday.

Milena Del Valle died July 10, 2006, when concrete ceiling panels collapsed on her car in the long-troubled and excessively over-budget $15 billion tunnel under Boston Harbor, The Boston Globe reported.

Del Valle's family has sued 17 firms involved in the Big Dig, while Attorney General Martha Coakley has concluded only three of the firms were criminally negligent, the Globe reported.

The three are Big Dig managers Bechtel Co. and Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, and Power Fasteners, whose epoxy came loose from the bolts securing the panels to the tunnel roof, the newspaper reported.

Bechtel and Parsons have offered to settle without criminal charges for an amount one of the attorneys said was "well north" of $300 million. Powers Fasteners, owned by four brothers, was indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter after Coakley rejected their settlement offer of $8 million.