Northwest Boring Receives Microtunneling Award

Northwest Boring Co. Inc. (NWB) of Woodinville, Wash., was awarded the prestigious 2011 Microtunnel Achievement Award from the Colorado School of Mines. The minority-owned company is owned by Donald W. Gonzales. The award, which recognizes the company that has demonstrated the highest level of excellence in microtunneling, was presented to NWB vice president Dennis Molvik at the Colorado School of Mines’ annual Microtunneling Short Course in Golden, Colo., Feb. 10.

Tim Coss, director of the Microtunneling Short Course, presented the award and cited NWB’s record-setting achievements in completing the microtunneling on the Portsmouth Force Main Segment 1 project for the City of Portland. NWB set a U.S. record for microtunneling steel casing almost 7 ft in diameter a distance of over 1,903 ft on the Portsmouth project. NWB is also the first repeat recipient of this award, having been the inaugural receiver of this award back on Feb. 7, 2002.

Microtunneling is a method of tunneling using a remote-controlled microtunnel boring machine and a laser guidance system, which employs a jacking system for thrust and continuous pressure to the tunnel face of the excavation to balance groundwater and earth pressures.

The Microtunneling Short Course, which was held Feb, 9-11, was the 18th annual course and included a one-day Pilot Tube Microtunneling seminar that was held on Feb. 8.

The Microtunneling Short Course is the premiere course of its kind and attracts in excess of 100 attendees each year, including international attendees and speakers. In addition to Coss, course organizers include Levent Ozdemir, professor emeritus at CSM.

The course is presented by the Microtunneling Research Institute in conjunction with Trenchless Technology magazine.




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