Trapped Under the Sea by Neil Swidey is a meticulously researched story of the building of the sewage treatment system that was an integral part of the cleanup of Boston Harbor, one of the most polluted harbors in America. Along with the Big Dig, this project was the most technically challenging urban projects ever undertaken with many aspects never before attempted. Constructing a ten mile tunnel under Boston Harbor seems a most daunting engineering task, but Swidey shows the reader that the final phase of removing the plugs that kept the harbor water from flooding into the tunnel during construction was the trickiest and least planned aspect of the project. The reader is taken into a world of project management companies, contractors, subcontractors, and governmental agencies where cost overruns and delays placed such pressure on the workers at the end of the project that a ill-conceived plan was allowed to be carried out with disastrous results. The same system found it nearly impossible to assign blame to any one individual.
Swidey’s style belies his Boston Globe roots. The story is well-researched and reads at time as a serial story in the Globe would read. We’re introduced to the main characters by a wealth of background material, that at times doesn’t have us genuinely concerned with their lives as much as feeling slowly drawn along toward a certain tragic fate. The divers’ story is told in detail, and one is left with a profound impression of the lack of concern for them by the companies scrambling to get the job done.
This book is recommended reading for anyone who appreciates the cleanliness of Boston Harbor as it is today. The lives lost in making it the beautiful harbor it is today must be remembered. For those not from the Boston area, this story is also a compelling read for anyone interested in engineering and problem-solving with the dangers of having too many misaligned goals, making for a disastrous outcome. The simplicity of the solution to the removal of the plugs, though expensive, was a stunning revelation of what should have been if anyone had taken a step back and evaluated the available options. An indictment of systems allowing shortcuts in the name of cost controls when human lives are involved. The second half of the book does an admirable job of bringing home the human toll in the form of interviews and follow-up with the main characters.
Overall, this is a nicely crafted account of a American engineering marvel with the dangers and human tragedy not made available to the public before.
This review is for the softcover edition. A copy of this book was provided by the Blogging for Books for this review.