A chunk of ceiling tiles fell to the ground in an MBTA station in Boston earlier this week.
The MBTA said it happened in the passageway between the Park Street and Downtown Crossing stations. Video shows people walking in the passageway at the time the ceiling tiles came down. No one was hurt.
The MBTA said it was caused by water intrusion following this week’s heavy rain. Structural inspectors were sent by the MBTA to remove any loose material. The MBTA’s director of engineering inspected the area and deemed it safe.
The passageway remains in service and was never closed down.
Two years ago, a falling ceiling tile narrowly missed a passenger walking through the Red Line’s Harvard station.
“I was obviously in a state of shock,” the woman said at the time. “I didn’t really know what was happening, obviously I’m just walking off the T trying to get home and the ceiling comes crashing down.”
The MBTA determined the ceiling panel that fell was corroded. The falling tile led to the MBTA inspecting ceiling panels at every station, removing ones that were only being used for aesthetics.
Two months later at Harvard station, a woman was banger by a falling utility box that broke her collarbone. The MBTA later said corrosion on the support straps that secured the box to a support column was what caused it to fall. MBTA GM Phillip Eng then ordered all the boxes at Red Line stations to be taken down.
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