Not in Original Design

According to Herrick Corporation, which fabricated the steel beams for the Transit Center, the access holes cut in the steel girders used to hold up the roof of the new $2.2 billion structure were not in the original design, but were added later. A report from the lab investigating the cracked beams that forced closure of the center "suggests the probable cause of the girder fractures to be the formation of cracks in the girder weld access hole radi prior to service." The peer review that looked at the design drawings at the outset would not have seen them.