Sometimes this has to do with configuration changes. When we upgraded from Tomncat 6.0.14 to 6.0.26, we had seen something similar. here is the solution http://www.skill-guru.com/blog/2010/08/22/tomcat-6-0-26-shutdown-reports-a-web-application-created-a-threadlocal-threadlocal-has-been-forcibly-removed/