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Port Huron tunnel workers won't be forgotten

Date Posted: January 19 2007

HURON - Michigan's worst construction accident took place at 3:11 p.m. Dec. 11, 1971, when 22 men were killed and nine injured in an explosion inside a Lake Huron water intake tunnel owned by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

A spark ignited an unseen cloud of methane gas, creating an explosion that caused a massive shock wave to travel the length of the tunnel. The blast inside the tunnel was compared to the barrel of a gun, and witnesses reported seeing debris - lunch boxes, clothing, hard hats - shoot 200 feet into the air.

It took 30 years to start an effort to erect a marker or memorial to commemorate the men who died in the explosion. It took another five years for that effort to come to fruition: This spring or early this summer, a monument will be complete in Fort Gratiot County Park, in an area that is located directly above the tunnel.

Debbie Comeau founded and chairs the group - the "1971 Water Tunnel Explosion Committee" - that led the 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.

"People really came out of the woodwork when they heard what we were doing," Comeau said. "I have never done anything like this in my life, and after talking to other family members of those who died, it really tore my heart apart to hear their stories. This really became a passion."

The memorial will focus on a bronze statue of 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 will be surrounded by paver bricks formed in a circle with the names of well-wishes who paid to have their names inscribed on bricks, which offsets the cost of the monument.

The names of the men who died will be engraved on a granite marker at the site, which is on the Lake Huron Shore. Another marker will explain what happened in 1971.

Comeau said they are still accepting donations to offset the cost of the memorial. Checks can be made payable to: Community Foundation of St. Clair County - Tunnel Fund, 516 McMorran Blvd., Port Huron, MI 48060. Anyone wishing to have their name inscribed on a brick at the memorial can call her at (810) 982-4826 for details.

Here's an account of what happened on Dec. 11, 1971, according to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department. Detroit's northernmost water intake was nearing completion, as vertical drilling operations inside a cofferdam on the lake were taking place on the lake, 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 took up positions within the last unlined mile at the shore end, where they continued finishing operations.

William Rounsville, who would survive the explosion, later recalled asking one of the supervisors, Vernard Woolstenhulme, if drilling would be taking place at the other end of the tunnel. "No," said Woolstenhulme. "They're going to drill tomorrow, and I don't want any of my men in the tunnel."

Woolstenhulme and his grandson, Gary Roehm, died in the explosion.

Meanwhile out at the cofferdam, refrigerating the bottom sediment had worked like a charm. Over the course of the last several days, 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 today.

The men in the tunnel didn't know about the drilling that was planned. The men on the drilling platform thought the tunnel was empty. The 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, and an unstoppable chain of events was put into play.

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 crewmember was knocked back into the water.

According to contemporary newspaper accounts, Russ Michaels, a Water Department inspector, immediately called (project engineer) Greenfield and Associates' site headquarters near the tunnel entrance to advise them of the explosion, adding, "It's a good thing no one was working down there."

An unidentified voice replied, "We had 41 men working down there - and we think they are buried." Those killed were more than four-and-one-half miles from the explosion's epicenter.

Of those in the tunnel, 22 made it out alive, seven of those were carried out on stretchers. The least injured, Francis Hamrick, suffered a broken arm, neck injuries, cuts and bruises. The actual 22nd victim, Keith Verner, died about 10 months after the explosion.

In the weeks and months that followed the explosion, 30 lawsuits were filed in Wayne County. Some were dismissed as frivolous. Many others were not. Eventually, $8.5 million - a record in 1976 - was awarded to several plaintiffs.

The families of the men who died in the tunnel, each received $750 from the State
of Michigan for funeral expenses. Widows received $79 a week for 10 years. Those
with children got $102.

The most significant development to come from out of this tragedy was a revamping of Michigan's occupational safety laws.

A RENDERING OF the memorial for Michigan's worst construction accident.