Post by Logan on Jul 4, 2016 1:09:47 GMT -6
DOT Orders Scrutiny Of 35 Bridges After Inspector Accused Of Falsifying Report In NY
It didn't attract much notice around here when Akram Ahmad, an engineer from Bridgeport, was arrested May 18 in New York state for allegedly falsifying a safety inspection report on a bridge over a creek in the small town of Wells in the Adirondack mountains.
A few Connecticut news outlets published short, local-angle stories that the 57-year-old Bridgeport man, working for an engineering subcontractor that inspects bridges for New York's transportation department, had been charged with three felonies relating to the report he had submitted in 2013.
But now it turns out that there's more to the story — and Ahmad's arrest has troubling implications in Connecticut: He had a hand in hundreds of Connecticut bridge inspection reports during recent years while working for firms that were state Department of Transportation consultants, according to documents obtained by Government Watch.
In particular, Ahmad was a team leader for inspections of 35 significant bridges on and over highways such as I-84 and I-91 in Connecticut since 2014. A few of the bridges are in Hartford, including those that support the public library, Main Street and Columbus Boulevard, where the Whitehead Highway passes beneath them on the way to I-91.
Read more: www.courant.com/politics/hc-lender-dot-eyeing-arrested-inspector-20160702-column.html
It didn't attract much notice around here when Akram Ahmad, an engineer from Bridgeport, was arrested May 18 in New York state for allegedly falsifying a safety inspection report on a bridge over a creek in the small town of Wells in the Adirondack mountains.
A few Connecticut news outlets published short, local-angle stories that the 57-year-old Bridgeport man, working for an engineering subcontractor that inspects bridges for New York's transportation department, had been charged with three felonies relating to the report he had submitted in 2013.
But now it turns out that there's more to the story — and Ahmad's arrest has troubling implications in Connecticut: He had a hand in hundreds of Connecticut bridge inspection reports during recent years while working for firms that were state Department of Transportation consultants, according to documents obtained by Government Watch.
In particular, Ahmad was a team leader for inspections of 35 significant bridges on and over highways such as I-84 and I-91 in Connecticut since 2014. A few of the bridges are in Hartford, including those that support the public library, Main Street and Columbus Boulevard, where the Whitehead Highway passes beneath them on the way to I-91.
Read more: www.courant.com/politics/hc-lender-dot-eyeing-arrested-inspector-20160702-column.html