Agenda

Levent Ozdemir, Ph.D. , PE, is President of Ozdemir Associates and spent 32 years as Professor of Mining and the Director of the Excavation Engineering and Earth Mechanics Institute (EMI) at the Colorado School of Mines. During his tenure at Mines, he developed and taught courses in tunnel design and construction, mechanized rock and soil excavations, site investigations, excavation project management and underground mining. He built EMI to a world-class research organization and directed pioneering research in all aspects of mechanized tunneling and underground construction. His outreach activities at Mines have also included the development of several short courses for the tunneling industry. He currently serves as a consultant to the tunneling and the underground construction industries worldwide.

Paul Nicholas has spent 40 years in the oil, heavy infrastructure and tunneling industries with a geological background and extensive engineering experience. He specializes in tunnel boring machine (TBM) engineering and operation both on the contractor and consultant side. His background in geology and experience with tunneling equipment manufacturing allow a unique ability to analyze ground conditions and recommend means and methods, as well as complete constructability and risk assessments for tunnel construction.

Dr. Brierley has more than 50 years of experience with both the technical and nontechnical aspects of underground engineering and construction management. Beginning as a project manager in 1970, he has worked on more than 1,000 projects involving all types of underground design and construction including soil and rock engineering, building foundations, braced excavations, ground improvement and slope stability for owners, contractors, engineers, public agencies, and attorneys.

Troy Stokes is an International Sales Manager for Akkerman Inc., a leading manufacturer of tunneling, microtunneling and small-diameter pipe jacking equipment. Stokes is responsible for market development and support in North America along with Australia and New Zealand. His career in the underground construction industry has spanned nearly four decades in over 20 countries. Stokes is a member of ISTT, along with many of its regional and global chapters, NASTT, ASCE, SME and NUCA. In addition, he has been integrally involved with the annual Microtunneling Short Course since the early years.

Michael Garbeth joined Super Excavators, Inc. in 2010 as a project manager and now serves as a senior project manager. He has over 17 years of experience in the construction industry, specializing in underground projects throughout North America. He has been a key member of the management team, contributing to the growth and success of Super Excavators, Inc. Prior to joining Super Excavators, Inc., Michael worked for Omaha-based Kiewit as a field engineer, estimator, and superintendent. He completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Purdue University. Michael enjoys working on difficult and challenging projects and believes that communication skills are critical to a successful project. Michael has always believed that the success of a business depends on the quality and performance of its people – a team that can manage through good times as well as the bad times.  

Charlesis Brierley’s Construction Design/Contractor Support Sector Leader. Charles’ experience with one of North America’s largest and heavy civil contractors enables him to deliver constructable designs for: earth retention systems, cofferdams, falsework & formwork, erection & demolition sequencing, multiple crane lifts, customized rigging, rebar cage handling, access platforms and marine operations. Our contractor clients rely on Charles to solve a wide array of challenges on high profile projects in urban or constrained work sites.

Don Del Nero, PE, CDT is Vice President and a Tunnel Engineering Director for WSP. He holds a minor in geology, BS in Civil Engineering, MS in Geotechnical Engineering, and has 33 years of experience in tunnel and trenchless design and construction. Along with being an instructor for the Microtunneling Short Course,  he is an instructor for the NASTT New Installation Course, Breakthroughs in Tunneling Short-course, and Risk Management in Underground Construction short-course. He had the honor of Chairing the 2018 No-Dig Show, has authored over 40 industry papers and a subchapter on means and methods in the book, “Trenchless Technology: Planning, Equipment, and Methods” by Mohammad Najafi.

A lifelong Missourian, Robert graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1977 with a degree in Agricultural Economics. He started Trinity Products in 1979 along with two other partners before buying the final partner out in 1993. Along with his lovely wife Shelly, he currently lives in St. Charles, MO. His two sons are University of Missouri, Columbia graduates. His son A.J. is in a Sales Management role at Trinity while his son Bo is part owner, founder, and President of National Flatbed Solutions, a Freight-Logistics company. Robert has served as President and Treasurer of the National Association of Steel Pipe Distributors (NASPD), an international organization of more than 300 steel distributors, and is involved with the CPTI (Committee on Pipe & Tube Import) which lobbies Congress on Pipe and Steel related issues. He has spent his entire career in the steel and fabrications industry and has seen Trinity’s sales and manufacturing grow from a fab shop of $2.2 million in sales in 1993 to over $275 million in sales in 2022.

Tony Baker has been with Trinity Products since 2011, serving most of his time as a Business Development Representative for Fabricated Structures & Underground Utility Contractors. Since the development of the Tri-Loc system in 2017, Tony has taken over as Tri-Loc Product Manager. In this role he oversees sales and production for the product line. As a team, we are always listening to customer feedback, looking for opportunities to improve our processes and product installation.

Glenn Boyce is Principal and Supervising Tunnel/Geotechnical Engineer with more than 35 years of experience. This extensive experience covers virtually every aspect of trenchless, tunnel, shaft, and geotechnical engineering design and construction. He has served as an engineer, lead engineer, project manager, technical reviewer and expert witness on a variety of trenchless projects. Boyce is licensed as a professional engineer in six states.

Trevor Gonterman is a 15-year veteran of the steel industry, having worked with various entities including major national and international original equipment manufacturers and contractors on product design and material applications for environmental, agricultural, energy, oil and gas and construction products. As a Permalok team member, Gonterman has been fortunate to learn from the recognized leaders in underground construction and has focused his efforts on expanding the company’s reach and expertise in trenchless construction and new product design and development working with customers to bring new steel pipe technology to the forefront in tunnel construction.

Mr. Rosenberg is a full time construction lawyer. He is a Fellow in the American College of Construction Lawyers, the chairperson of the American Bar Association, Forum on Construction Law, which is the largest organization of construction lawyers in the world, listed in Best Lawyers in America and listed as one of the top 50 lawyers in his home city of Columbus, Ohio by Super Lawyers magazine.

Ben Clark is Derrick Corporation’s global manager for civil applications. Ben holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Hamilton College and has worked at Derrick for over 18 years with the last 15 years focused on managing Derrick’s civil construction business unit.  Ben lives with his wife and two kids in Katy, TX.  Derrick has more than 7 decades of experience in the manufacture of premium solids control and fine screening equipment for the industrial mining, oil/gas drilling, and civil construction markets.

Since 1997, he has been directly responsible for technical and sales support for Hobas fiberglass pipes in the Western United States and Canada. His coverage includes Hawaii, Alaska, West and Midwestern states and 5 provinces of Canada West of Ontario. Bijan has presented numerous papers on the Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer Mortar (FRPM) pipes in trenchless installations at the ASCE Pipelines, CWEA, HWEA. NoDig and UCT conferences.

Project Leader for many bigger construction projects in the field of Hydropower, Infrastructure, Cableways. Previous experience includes being responsible for various design projects in the field of microtunneling including construction supervision (structural calculation, shafts, jacking force calculations including design of interjacking stations, main jack reaction block, face support pressure calculation, pipe arches etc.) in most challenging environments (railways, roads and highways, groundwater, buildings, geology, underground utilities etc.), as trenchless specialist or lead designer.

Prior to founding United Underground Precast with Jon Gavin, Owner & President of United Concrete Products, Inc., Walter served 18 years as Executive V.P./COO of Concrete Systems, Inc. dba CSI Tunnel Systems, including execution of 29 precast segmental tunnel liner projects. Walter, alongside the Principal Owner, conceived and built the operating model and infrastructure that enabled the company to scale operations and pursue multiple segmental tunnel liner opportunities across North America. Walter was involved in all commercial and strategic aspects; specification review, tendering, contracts, ventures, and mobilization for all segmental tunnel projects.

Lester Bradshaw is President of Bradshaw Construction, a leading microtunneling contractor in the United States. He is a third-generation tunneler starting as a tunnel laborer 49 years ago. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Harvard. He is on the board of the North American Microtunneling Association (NAMA) and is current Chairman of the Executive Board.

Chris Sivesind is a Territory Sales Manager for the western United States, western Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia with Akkerman, a manufacturer of pipe jacking and tunneling equipment. Sivesind’s career in trenchless construction and equipment sales has spanned over two decades. He is a national NASTT board member and an active presenter and participant at industry conferences and initiatives promoting trenchless technology. Sivesind received his formal education from Washington State University. Go Cougs!

Ingo Justen is co-founder and CEO of Tunnel Services Group, headquartered in Germany. Justen has a long history in the market, including working in the United States. Under his guidance, Tunnel Services Group provides a range of services including consulting, training, MTBM repairs and parts. Justen is a 2018 recipient of the Microtunneling Achievement Award.

James Parkes is the Technical Tunneling Director with Schnabel Engineering’s Tunnel Business Unit. He graduated summa cum laude with BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Virginia Tech. He has over 20 years of experience in the geotechnical and tunnel design for underground works including design of tunnels, shafts, and trenchless installations for water, wastewater, power, drainage, and transit facilities.  

Paul Nicholas has spent 40 years in the oil, heavy infrastructure and tunneling industries with a geological background and extensive engineering experience. He specializes in tunnel boring machine (TBM) engineering and operation both on the contractor and consultant side. His background in geology and experience with tunneling equipment manufacturing allow a unique ability to analyze ground conditions and recommend means and methods, as well as complete constructability and risk assessments for tunnel construction.

Frank is a Qualified Surveyor since 1984 and has been involved in multiple international microtunneling and tunneling projects since 1987. He started his own business. Schwarzer GmbH, in 1992 surveying for tunneling projects. Frank first spoke at the Microtunneling Short Course in 2002 about curved tunneling and has owned Tunnel24 since 2013.

Mathias Knoll is the Vice President of VMT (USA) and is responsible for VMT’s business development in Canada and the US. He has been involved in a variety of tunneling projects for more than a decade which included small-scale microtunnels as well as large diameter segmental lining tunnels. One of Mathias’ main goals is to introduce the application of new technologies to the tunneling industry.

Our law firm successfully works “behind the scenes” throughout the country with trenchless contractors to cooperatively and equitably resolve extra cost, time and constructability issues on the jobsite.  Contractors get paid/time extensions without sacrificing their working relationships.  By engaging us when the issue first arises, our involvement is typically limited in time and consequently cost.  It is all about the return on investment.  We are uniquely qualified to deliver on this commitment because of our knowledge and experience with trenchless construction.  To that point, we have recently edited and help write a national trenchless manual for both contractors and engineers.  If you want a partner to help you work through under-designed projects and differing site conditions, we can help!

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Mr. Wilkinson is a Senior Consultant with KUE and is an industry recognized microtunneling specialist with over 30 years’ experience in the microtunneling industry. As the former General Manager of Iseki Microtunneling UK, Paul has personally overseen the planning and installation of well over 100 Km of microtunnel with diameters ranging from 250 mm (10 inches) to 3020mm (120 inches) in over 35 countries. Paul was one of the first individuals to plan a vertically curved microtunnel drive over 500 meters (~1600 feet) with use of a gyro navigation system and underwater recovery. With KUE, Paul provides project consultation and construction management services for trenchless projects.

Colin is a Civil Engineer who has worked with Ward & Burke for 10 years. During this time, he has managed and supervised microtunnel projects across North America. He now acts as Director of Ward & Burke in the USA and Canada. 

Dr. Maureen “Mo” Carlin is the Trenchless & Tunneling Infrastructure Practice Leader for Garver. She has more than 20 years’ experience in construction engineering and project management for both vertical commercial construction and trenchless pipeline construction. Carlin’s areas of expertise are in advanced project planning and market analysis for trenchless pipeline and utility tunneling engineering and construction. Carlin received B.S. degrees in Civil Engineering and Architectural Engineering from the Missouri University of Science and Technology, a M.B.A from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and a Ph.D. Civil Engineering with an Emphasis in Construction Engineering and Management. 

Carl graduated with a bachelor of science in construction engineering from Oregon State University. After school he worked for Kiewit Construction on the SR520 Floating Bridge in Seattle as the structures engineer. In 2015 he left the bridge world for pipes and started with Thompson Pipe Group. Carl recently passed the Professional Engineering exam and is licensed in Washington State. He currently chairs the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the North American Society for Trenchless Technology, and contributes to other organizations such as ASCE, NUCA, and NASTT.

Tucker Toelke started his career in trenchless construction as a college intern looking for experiences outside of what he assumed would be a career in aerospace engineering. The summer of 2015 opened Tucker’s mind to the world under his feet and took his focus away from his previously anticipated career in the clouds. In his current role as Assistant Alternative Delivery Manager, Tucker helps customers understand the feasibility of using various trenchless construction methods, including horizontal directional drilling, Direct Pipe and microtunneling, to achieve their project goals. In an industry where early contractor involvement can greatly improve a project’s probability for operational and financial success, Tucker is known for his quick, thorough and thoughtful review of project plans.