Colorado School of Mines Hosts 21st Annual Microtunneling Short Course

The Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, once again hosted the annual Microtunneling Short Course. The event took place Feb. 10-12 with a special one-day seminar on Feb. 9 on pilot tubing microtunneling. The popularity of the course was evident with over 120 attendees. Over the 21 years the short course has been held, there have now been over 2,500 students.

The main event sponsor was Akkerman. The course was organized by Tim Coss of Microtunneling Inc. and Levent Ozdemir of Levent Engineering in partnership with Trenchless Technology/Benjamin Media.

Notable presentations during the course included “Pathfinder Steering Systems” presented by James Barbera, Barbco; “The New Microtunneling Standard” presented by Glenn Boyce, McMillen Jacobs Associates; “Air Locks for MTBMs and the PVHO-1-2012” presented by Steve Reimers, PCCI Inc.; and “Robbins Launches New Micrtotunneling System” presented by Grahame Turnbull of The Robbins Co.

The speakers came from all over North America, as well as from around the world. Outside of North America, there were speakers from Germany, Japan, Belgium, Switzerland and Singapore.

The evening of Feb. 11 included a special meeting of the North American Microtunneling Association chaired by Coss. There was also a hospitality reception hosted by Akkerman.

Closing the Short Course was a reception and banquet on Feb. 12. A highlight of the evening was a presentation of the annual Microtunneling Achievement Awards. This year’s award recipients were Rene Inosanto of Frank Coluiccio Construction in the area of field engineering; Greg Raines of MWH Global in the area of civil engineering; and John Grennan of Ward and Burke in the area of contracting. The keynote speaker for the evening was Priscilla Nelson, head of the Colorado School of Mines’ Mining Department. The 2016 Microtunneling Short Course will be again held at the Colorado School of Mines Feb. 8-11.

The popularity of the course was evident with over 120 attendees.	Greg Raines of MWH (right) accepts the Microtunneling Achievement Award from Tim Coss.
John Grennan of Ward and Burke (right) accepts the Microtunneling Achievement Award from Tim Coss.	Rene Inosanto of Frank Coluccio Construction Co. (right) accepts the Microtunneling Achievement Award from Tim Coss.
Priscilla Nelson, head of the Mining Department at the Colorado School of Mines, delivers the keynote address as the Microtunneling Short Course banquet.	Rene Inosanto of Frank Coluccio Construction Co. (left) receives gift from Noburu Kiyota of Rasa Corp. during the Microtunneling Short Course banquet.