Zlatanic Named National Tunnel Practice Chair for HNTB

HNTB Corp. expanded its national leadership team by naming Sanja Zlatanic as chair, national tunnel practice.

In this role, Zlatanic, P.E., a senior vice president of the firm, directs the firm’s tunneling and underground projects and leads HNTB’s global marketing and business development for tunneling and underground within transportation and water resources market sectors. She is based in the firm’s New York City office in the Empire State Building.

“Tunnels and complex underground structures continue to be an integral and growing part of HNTB’s work within the transportation sector, dominating some of our most recognizable projects,” said Doug Mann, HNTB corporate development president. “In her new role, Sanja will lead the firm’s efforts to grow the existing market and establish new rail and transit underground infrastructure opportunities resulting from growing urbanization trends demonstrated by transit-oriented development challenges, along with pressing needs to repair and improve existing, aging tunnel infrastructure.”

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Zlatanic is well known within the tunnel and underground market, bringing 28 years of experience in project and engineering management of mega transportation, transit and underground projects. She has been responsible for managing all phases of major multi-billion dollar projects, including extensive multi-disciplinary joint venture staff, from feasibility and conceptual engineering through final design and construction. Her expertise in project management and multi-disciplinary coordination and integration of complex underground structures and tunnels have been recognized by clients and major transit agencies nationally and internationally.

She has been with HNTB since 2011, serving as chief tunneling engineer, a role she continues to fill. She provides counsel on many of HNTB’s largest projects, including the Crenshaw/LAX transit corridor in Los Angeles; Amtrak Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel in Baltimore; SR 99 Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement in Seattle; and others. Recently, HNTB successfully completed its role as independent design verification engineer on the iconic Istanbul Strait Road Tube Crossing Tunnel Project in Turkey where Zlatanic was project manager.

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Zlatanic is a graduate structural engineer, tunnels, concrete and steel structures, from the University of Belgrade. She also completed the Executive Education for Women program at Smith College.

As an active member of various tunneling and underground societies, she has published numerous articles, chaired conference sessions, and made presentations on the design and construction of tunnels and underground facilities at national and international tunneling conferences. In 2015, she was elected board member and secretary general of Associated Research Centers for Urban Underground Space, an international, non-governmental organization dedicated to partnerships among experts who research, plan, design, construct and decide upon the best use of urban underground space.

Zlatanic’s role expands HNTB’s in-depth experience in providing innovative solutions and managing risks on tunneling projects in the highway, transit, rail, aviation and water resources markets.