PORT HURON - More than 35 years after Michigan's worst construction accident claimed the lives of 22 workers, there was finally some closure for some of the victims' families on Aug. 31.

That's when a ceremony was held that included the unveiling of a bronze statue of a tunnel worker atop a granite pedestal inscribed with the names of the victims and a description of the tragedy. About 300 attended.

Debbie Comeau founded and chairs the group - the "1971 Water Tunnel Explosion Committee" - that led the five-year-long drive to erect the monument. Debbie's husband, Randy, was nine when his father Raymond was killed in the explosion. She helped form the committee after the Port Huron Times Herald reminded its reading audience that no monument had ever been built to honor the Hardhats who were killed.

"The reason we did all of this was to lift some heavy hearts, and I think we accomplished that," Debbie Comeau said. "There were a lot of tears, but I think that the family members appreciated that something was done. One family member said she thought that a weight had been lifted, that until now they never really had a chance for closure."

The focus of the memorial is on the bronze statue which depicts a typical tunnel construction worker of the time, with a light on his hard hat, a pick-axe in his hand, wearing work clothes and boots from that period. The statue is surrounded by paver bricks formed in a circle with the names of well-wishes who paid to have their names inscribed on bricks, which offset the cost of the monument.

Comeau said the group raised about $60,000 for the monument - $10,000 more than the actual cost. She said the remaining $10,000 will be placed in an endowment for maintenance of the site.

"We were able to do this with the support of the unions and the community," Comeau said. "It was truly community built - other than the cost of the statue, we had so many donations of time, machines and equipment."

The memorial is located in Port Gratiot Township on the shores of Lake Huron, directly above the water intake.

The lives were lost on Dec. 11, 1971. According to an account by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, Detroit's northernmost water intake was nearing completion, as vertical drilling operations inside a cofferdam on Lake Huron were taking place, and crews were ready to tap into the horizontal water tunnel.

At about 11 a.m., 43 men descended into the tunnel, roughly 230 feet below the surface. They were continuing finishing operations within the tunnel's last unlined mile at the shore end.

Meanwhile out at the cofferdam, crews had drilled through 30 feet of sediment into shale to within about eight feet of the top of the tunnel. They would drill the remaining eight feet that day.

The men in the tunnel didn't know about the drilling that was planned. The workers on the drilling platform thought the tunnel was empty. A drill bit bored through the remaining eight feet of shale without problem. The bit broke through the concrete roof of the tunnel, at which point the crew broke for lunch. It was now about 1:50 p.m. As the bit cut through the shale, it cut through at least one pocket of methane that vented into the big, empty, unventilated end of the tunnel. While the drilling crew ate lunch, gas collected. Following lunch, the crew tried to retrieve the bit, but encountered resistance.

They could always retrieve the bit later, and chose to activate a release mechanism and jettison it.

Around 3:11 p.m., the heavy, 23-inch drill bit was released from the shaft. It fell to the bottom of the tunnel where experts say it created a spark upon impact with the concrete. The spark, in turn, ignited the accumulated methane.

On the drilling platform, crew members felt a hot blast of air shoot from the hole accompanied by "a sound like a jet taking off," according to one of the drillers. A force compared to a shotgun blast traveled down the length of the tunnel, killing 21 workers, and another worker died about 10 months later. They were more than four-and-one-half miles from the explosion's epicenter.

Now, above the tunnel, there's a quiet spot near Lake Huron that's established in the workers' memory.

"I think it's fantastic, it's a beautiful park, very peaceful, and the artist did a phenomenal job," said Cherie Darmis, who was married to 21-year-old laborer Don Fogal when he was killed inside the tunnel. "We waited a long time for it. I just wanted to have a place where he will be remembered."

(Debbie Comeau is still accepting contributions for the maintenance of the memorial. She can be reached at (810) 982-4826).

UNVEILED ON Aug. 31, this statue depicts a typical tunnel worker, or "mucker" in 1971. It was made to honor the 22 construction workers who were killed in the Port Huron Tunnel explosion that year - the worst construction accident in Michigan's history. The work is by California sculptor Paula Slater. The names of the deceased workers are on the base. Photo by Paul Gomez, Detroit Water and Sewage Division