Tunnel Market Remains Strong

With the turmoil in the general economy, it is refreshing to see that infrastructure-based markets are holding steady. This is true both in the large-diameter tunneling market as well as small diameter water and sewer pipelines.

In the first half of this year, I have heard reports of slumping attendance at various trade shows covering different aspects of construction, yet events hosted by the Underground Construction Association of SME have had strong turnouts. The George A. Fox New York Construction Conference in January and the Seattle Regional Tunneling Conference held in May had strong turnouts, including a record crowd of more than 300 people for the Fox Conference and more than 250 in Seattle. UCA officials are also anticipating a strong turnout for the Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference.

Additionally, projects are moving forward and the Obama administration’s predilection for infrastructure spending bode well for both transportation and sewer/water tunnels. There have been some negative developments largely due to diminished revenues of owner agencies, including the shelving of the SCOP project in Nevada and the Detroit River Outfall No. 2 and Upper Rouge River CSO projects in Detroit.

However new projects in Seattle, San Francisco and New York will hopefully the fill void. Consent decree-mandated work also looms in many mid-sized cities across the country.

Colorado School of Mines Presents Tunnel Short Course

The Colorado School of Mines, in conjunction with TBM: Tunnel Business Magazine and Microtunneling Inc., presents “Breakthroughs in Tunneling” - a three-day Short Course that will cover all aspects of conventional and mechanized tunnel design and construction in hard rock, soft ground and soils. The event will be held Sept. 23-25 at the School of Mines campus in Golden, Colo.

Presented by international experts in the tunneling community, this one-of-a-kind Short Course provides in-depth, specialized instruction not offered anywhere else in the world. The Short Course benefits anyone involved in the multi-billion dollar global tunneling sector.

The course subjects will be presented by prominent international experts from industry and academia. The course attendees will receive CEUs for attending the course. This course is recommended for technical and management professionals from owners, engineers, contractors, consulting firms, and anyone else involved in tunneling and underground construction.

The course directors are Dr. Levent Ozdemir, Professor of Mining and Director of the Tunneling and Earth Mechanics Institute, Colorado School of Mines, and Timothy Coss, President, Microtunneling Inc.

Both Ozdemir and Coss are widely recognized in the tunneling and microtunneling sector. Ozdemir has spent more than 20 years as a professor at the School of Mines, where he dedicates his research to innovative mechanical excavation and drilling techniques. Coss' company provides equipment, product support and engineering services for state-of-the-art tunneling and microtunneling projects across the globe.

Regards,

Jim Rush
Editor