TUCSS Monthly Seminar No. 262

Event details

TUCSS Monthly Seminar No. 262 – Thursday, 19 June 2025, 6.30 pm

Geotechnical Challenges in TBM Tunnelling and Potential Solutions in Site Investigation Phase

by Prof Jamal Rostami, Excavation Engineering & Earth Mechanics Institute (EMI), Colorado School of Mines

Abstract

The presentation will cover some of the projects involving TBM tunneling and the claims made during or after the construction. It discusses the basis for the claims and if there was anything that could be done to address the issue in the pre-construction site investigation. Some case histories will be reviewed where the TBMs were stuck in the tunnel or the cases where the anticipated advance rate was drastically different than the predicted machine performance at early stages.  The case studies will include Pikes Peak, Boston outfall tunnel, Queens Tunnel, Water tunnel #3, Ghomrud, Zagros, Uma Oya, and perhaps more. 

Speaker

Dr. Rostami is the Hadden/Alacer Gold Endowed Chair, Professor, and Director of the Excavation Engineering and Earth Mechanics Institute (EMI) of the dept. of Mining Engineering at CSM since 2016.  He has a BSc in mining engineering from Univ. of Tehran, Iran and his MSc and PhD in mining engineering in 92 and 97 from CSM, respectively.  He has been a faculty at Univ. of Tehran from 1988 through 2002, a full time consultant with major A&E companies from 2002 till 2007 when he joined the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), as Centennial Chair of Carrier Development in Mining. He has over 33 years of experience in design, management, research, and teaching in the field of mining, tunneling, and underground construction.  Dr. Rostami is a registered Professional Engineering (PE) in Maryland.  He has published over 120 peer reviewed journal publication and 160 conference papers and many technical reports. He is a member of SME, ASCE, ARMA, and ISEE. He is the editor in chief of the “Tunneling and Underground Space Technology” (TUST), member of editorial board of several rock mechanics and mining journals. He was also vice President of the “International Tunneling Association” or ITA (2022-25). Dr. Rostami was named the recipient 2022 UCA of SME Excellence in Education award and Pittsburgh Coal Mining Institute of America (PCMIA) 2014 Stephen McCann Memorial Educational Excellence Award. 

Time and Place

The presentation will take place electronically on Thursday, 19 June 2025 at 18:30 hrs. The presentation will take approximately 45 minutes, follow by 15 minutes of questions/discussion.

Invitation

This is the 262^nd in a series of presentations by TUCSS and is open to current TUCSS Members only. Seats are on first-come-first-served basis and limited to 500 persons.

Registration

Individual Members are to sign up for the seminar via their TUCSS account on the TUCSS Website. The details on how to access the seminar will be sent to the members who has successfully signed up for the seminar, at a date nearer to the seminar. The deadline for registration is on Monday 9 June 2025 or when total registered participants reaches 500 whichever comes earlier.

*TUCSS Corporate Members limited to 5 registrations only. For TUCSS Corporate members, please email us the following information (name, TUCSS Corporate membership number, company name, email address, PE/RE/RTO number if applicable).

Attendance Policy

For members who require certificate of attendance, please note of the attendance policy:

-        Login at the beginning of the seminar (link will be assessable at 18:15 hours)

-        Evidence of participation by video switched on throughout the seminar

-        Complete the quiz at the end of the seminar before logging out. The duration for the quiz is 15mins.

Certificate of Attendance will be uploaded to the member’s account after the compliance to the Attendance Policy is verified.

PDU/STU

Points have been applied and pending approval.

Speaker

Prof Jamal Rostami

Excavation Engineering & Earth Mechanics Institute (EMI), Colorado School of Mines