Fox Conference Held in New York

The UCA of SME’s George A. Fox Conference drew 330 participants to hear about the theme “Innovation in Rock Tunnel Construction.” The event was held at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.

Program chair Colin Lawrence of Hatch Mott MacDonald started the program by showing a video produced by UCA of SME highlighting careers in the tunnel sector. The intent of the video is to promote the tunneling market and help draw young engineers into the expanding marketplace.

John Reilly, John Reilly Associates, delivered the keynote address on “Mega Projects Delivery: Success and Lessons Learned” in which he stressed the importance of a strong management team that can deal with people in addition to the technical aspects of tunneling.

Mike McHugh of Moretrench followed with a recap of some of the ongoing and upcoming work in the eastern United States. Following the break, the conference discussed variety of technical presentations and case histories from around the country and around the world.

The conference is named in honor of George Fox, former chairman of Grow Tunneling Corp., who was a leading figure in major tunnel and civil engineering projects in New York for many years before his death in 2001. Further details about the conference can be found on the UCA of SME website at: www.uca.smenet.org,