November 10, 2021 – The North American Society for Trenchless Technology is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 NASTT Outstanding Trenchless Paper Awards for Rehabilitation and New Installations. These awards recognize excellence by commending authors of the best NASTT No-Dig Show papers each year. The winning papers were presented at the 2021 NASTT No-Dig Show in Orlando, Florida.
2021 Outstanding Paper: Rehabilitation
Columbia Canal Brick Arch Tunnel Geopolymer Lining in South Carolina
Joe Royer, Ph.D., Vice President R&D, GeoTree Solutions, LLC, Spartanburg, SC
Bill Sharpe, Business Development Manager, Inland Pipe Rehabilitation, LLC, Columbia, SC
Five years prior to the main project, the owner did an early technology evaluation and pilot project. “This gave us the opportunity to show the current larger effort as well as the success of the earlier projects,” explained Joe Royer. “The support of the asset owner on the difficult access issues on the project also helped shape the narrative.”
The paper brings attention to the use of geopolymers and spray-applications as an important part of the trenchless industry. “The work we at GeoTree Solutions and our contracting partner on this project IPR have done to develop the technology showcase viable solutions for large diameter projects.”
Columbia Canal Brick Arch Tunnel Geopolymer Lining in South Carolina is featured in the fall issue of Trenchless North America.
2021 Outstanding Paper: New Installations
HDD Lessons You Can Only Learn in the Field
Kimberlie Staheli, Ph.D., P.E., Staheli Trenchless Consultants, Seattle, WA
Jake Andresen, P.E., Staheli Trenchless Consultants, Seattle, WA
“I have thought about putting this together for years,” says Kimberlie Staheli who was introduced to trenchless technology on her first job after college with a microtunneling contractor. “The industry was so new that it really excited me. The more I learned, the more I realized that I had a shot of making a difference.” Staheli has seen the industry in an ongoing state of rapid transformation for more than 20 years and believes it is an industry where an engineer can continuously learn and grow.
“I see engineers specifying things that are not constructable. Then when we get there to perform Risk Management InspectionTM, we have to work through the issues in the field. I wanted engineers to be aware of how the designs need to be changed in the field to avoid claims.”
HDD Lessons You Can Only Learn in the Field will be featured in the winter issue of Trenchless North America.
The winning papers (and all the NASTT No-Dig Show papers) are available in the NASTT Knowledge Hub .
Authors of both papers will give encore presentations at the 2022 NASTT No-Dig Show in Minneapolis, Minnesota.