Tunnels

A ventilation duct switched to the wrong position fed a deadly March 24 fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel, according to a report by French and Italian investigators. An Italian tunnel worker saw cars suddenly turning back and passengers getting out of cars and decided to send oxygen into the tunnel instead of filtering out smoke, the report said. Security procedures requiring the immediate extraction of smoke in case of fire "were not applied," the report said.

A worker helping build the Channel Tunnel between Britain and France was struck by an underground train and killed Wednesday, the fifth person to die on the project, Kent County police said.

A Metro Rail subway builder will delay the resumption of tunneling through the Santa Monica Mountains for at least another week because it must replace 22 more support arches weakened by settling ground, the county's transit agency said Thursday. The postponement is the third since the contractor's digging machine became trapped in the mountains during the Fourth of July holiday. All told, 44 of four-inch tunnel arches must now be ripped out and replaced by stronger six-inch arches.

Responding to complaints about crime and graffiti, the Los Angeles City Council has voted to close a pedestrian tunnel on Stagg Street beneath the San Diego Freeway. The closure was requested by Councilman Joel Wachs, who represents the Van Nuys area and has received complaints from neighbors.

Responding to complaints that subway construction is causing more damage than the January earthquake, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has indefinitely stopped tunneling beneath Hollywood Boulevard. Officials could not say how long the project would be delayed.

Swiss police said it was unlikely that they would find many more bodies two days after a crash in the St. Gotthard Tunnel that claimed at least 11 lives. "We think the death toll may not go much higher," said Romano Piazzini, police chief of Ticino canton. About 120 people have been reported missing, but authorities said the high number reflected duplication, with worried relatives and friends phoning separate emergency lines in different Swiss cantons.

A truck driver whose rig was 6 inches too tall for the Lincoln Tunnel drove its entire 1 1/2 -mile length early Thursday, peeling the trailer's roof back and ripping off ceiling tiles. Flashing signs and officers using a loudspeaker warned the driver, and it was unclear why he didn't heed them, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the tunnel. The driver, from Texas, was charged with nine misdemeanor moving violations.

Mexican authorities discovered a large drug tunnel under construction a block from the U.S. border in Tijuana. Officials said the tunnel, found Tuesday, was more than 60 feet deep and 10 feet in diameter. They said it ran under a removable concrete floor in an empty warehouse next to a home near Otay Mesa, a border crossing for trucks. Officials said the tunnel had not yet crossed into U.S. territory. Authorities were searching for the owner of the property.

Palestinians threw stones and bottles at Israeli police Tuesday to protest Israel's opening of a controversial tunnel near several of the holiest sites in this disputed city.

The Big Dig highway tunnels under downtown Boston are structurally sound and safe despite recent leaks, the Federal Highway Administration said. The agency launched the investigation into the Interstate 93 tunnels after water broke though a faulty wall panel in September, backing up traffic for miles and setting off a new round of criticism of the much-maligned, multibillion-dollar road project.