Governor shuts tunnel under Boston Harbor

? Boston’s Big Dig crisis deepened Thursday when Gov. Mitt Romney shut down the eastbound lanes of a major highway tunnel after two problem bolts were discovered in the ceiling.

The Ted Williams Tunnel, which carries traffic to and from Logan Airport under Boston Harbor, already had been limited to bus traffic since ceiling panels in a connector tunnel collapsed this month, killing a car passenger.

State engineers discovered that two bolts appeared to have slipped half an inch and 1 inch in one ceiling panel, Romney said. He added that he expected the Ted Williams Tunnel to be shut for hours, not days.

“It is perhaps an overreaction, but we want to err on the side of public safety,” Romney said at a news conference. He said he was overruling an earlier finding by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority that the tunnel was safe.