Work Experience of Jamal Rostami

Employment History:

July 2007 to Present, Pennsylvania State University, Dept. of Energy and Mineral Engineering, State College, PA.

June 2005 to June 2007, Camp Dresser McKee (CDM), Senior Tunnel/Geotechnical Engineer.  GTS Division, Northeast Region, Annandale, VA.

August 2002 to June 2005, C4i Horizons LLC., Principal, Consulting in mining, tunneling, and underground construction, Rockville, MD

January 1998 to August 2002, University of Tehran, Department of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tehran, Iran, Assistant Professor.

May 1997 to January 1998, Colorado School of Mines, Department of Mining Engineering, Research Assistant Professor, Deputy Director of Earth Mechanics Institute, Golden, Colorado

June 1990 to May 1999, Colorado School of Mines, Department of Mining Engineering, Senior Research Assistant, Earth Mechanics Institute, Golden, Colorado

August 1987 to May 1989, Iranian Institute of Mineral Research and Application, Researcher, project Leader for Fluorspar Concentration Project. Tehran, Iran

Academic Experience:

January 1998 to Summer 2002, Dept of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran.  Assistant Professor .

• Administrative Appointments
• Dept. Registrar, in charge of programming undergraduate courses, exams, and registrars responsibility, Fall 1998-Spring 2002
• Graduate seminar coordinator Spring 1999-Spring 2002
• Member of Dept. Exec. Committee, Fall 1998-Spring 2002
• Member of undergraduate council, Faculty of Engineering, Fall 1998-Spring 2002
• Member of Iranian Petroleum Engineering Institute, Fall 2000-Spring 2002
• Member of Planing and Oversight Committee, Faculty of Engineering, Fall 2000-Spring 2001

Practical Experience:

Camp Dresser Mackee (CDM), Senior Geotech/Tunnel Engineer, June 2005 to Present, working in Falls Church office on variety of tunneling mining, and geotech projects.  Some examples are:

• NASA Lunar Mining Project, Design of cutterhead for Low Energy Excavator for mining on Moon and Mars. 
• Ellis Ave. Sewer trunk, I-10 crossing, Irvine, CA., installation of 10,000 ft tunnel using a 9 ft diameter EBB machine.  Construction management and shop drawing reviews for tunnel and proposed ground support system.
• Homstead St. pipeline, Hartford, Ct.  3400 ft of 72 inch pipeline to be installed by microtunneling in varved clay.  Review of Plans and construction cost estimates.
• Briar Creek Project, Mayer Park High School Tunnel, design and review of GBR and specifications for a 2400 ft long, 8 ft diameter tunnel in  soil/mixed ground and rock to be built using a TBM.
• Bliss Run Tunnel project, Columbus OH, Construction management of a 9 ft diameter 400 ft long tunnel in soft ground
• Perry Taggart Sanitary Sewer Project, Microtunneling Claims, expert witness and consultant to Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office, Columbus, OH
• Comprehensive Jamaica Bay  Water Quality Plan, involving peer review of design and cost estimates for this preliminary study performed for New York City Dept. of Environmental Protection (NYC-DEP) to evaluate mitigation plans for improving water quality in Jamaica Bay, in Brooklyn New York.
• Business Development Strategy for marketing in Mining Industry by CDM.
• Tunnel method selection and evaluation as well as cost estimation for Park River Auxiliary Conduit Project, Hartford Ct.
• Glase & Rock Creek Tunnel Project, St. Louis, MO.  Preliminary cost estimate for tunneling alternatives
• South Tunnel Alignment Project, Cost estimation and alignment selection for CSO tunnels in Harford Ct.
• South West Water Main Project, Tunnel and Micro Tunneling of 54 inch water main expansion in Charlotte, NC.
• Review of Waterjet Drilling Concepts, for directional drilling.
• Deer Creek Tunnel, St. Luis Missouri, Design of a 20’ (6 m ) diameter sewer tunnel, development of construction specifications, and review of cost estimates.
• Euclid Creek Tunnel, Cleveland OH, Preparation of proposal for design of 24 ft finished sewer tunnel
• Washington DC Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO), general study of the planned CSO of Washington DC including the alignment, depth, shafts, and phase I design.
• Corbalis Water Treatment Plant, Faifax County Virginia, Review of the shop drawings, rock and soil excavation design

Working in the area of Geotechnical investigations for tunnels, rock mechanics and rock testing, QAQC of Geotech programs, Mining, Mechanical Excavation, and IT and networking solutions for Tunneling, Mining, and underground construction industries.

• Golab Tunnel Project. For  contractor, Separsang Co, Iran.  Selection of TBMs and developing machine specifications for procurement of 4.2 m diameter Double Shield TBM to be used for 10.5 km water conveyance tunnel in central Iran.
• Ghomrud and Nosoud Tunnel Projects. For Sahel Consulting Eng. Co, Iran.  Selection of TBMs and developing machine specifica-tions for procurement of a 4.4 m Double Shield TBM for 18 km Ghomrud water conveyance tunnel in Central Iran and 14 km Nosoud Tunnel (6.5 m diameter) in Kurdestan Province, Western Iran.
• Construction Management of Water tunnel # 3 stage 3 contract 538-C with JV of Jenny Engineering Co. and URS Crop.  Work is to start at the end of January along with on-going geotech investigations support by the JV of Jenny Engineering Co and Hatch Mott Macdonald for New York City Dept. of Env. Protection (NYCDEP). 
• Pre bid estimation of TBM performance for a pair of two 3.6 m diameter tunnels as part of Saymour-Capiloano water tunnel project in Vancouver, Canada.  This work was performed for a contractor through Tetra Tech-RMC of Colorado. (June 2004)
• Working on the geotechnical investigation of the NYC Water Tunnel #3 Stage 2 in Mid-Town and lower Manhattan in for Dept. of Env. Protection  (DEP) through the joint venture of Jenny Engineering Corporation, and Hatch Mot McDonald, located in Milburn, NJ.  This involves reviewing the Geotech investigation plan, allocation of borings, logging the cores, sample selection for rock mechanics testing, QA/QC of the program, development of test procedures for rock mechanic testing, preparation of the Geotech reports, development of work plans and scheduling charts.  Also review of rock testing data and pertinent analysis for development of GIR in conjunction with Expert Review Board. (Sept. 2003 to Present)
• Project review and related analysis of progress, down time, and material consumption, as well as machine performance evaluation for NYC-DEP contract 538-B currently under construction in Manhattan.  This involves a 12.5 ft diameter Hard rock TBM deriving a 3 mile tunnel from Shaft 26-B towards south.  This task involves review of the shift reports, development of progress charts for daily, weekly, and monthly progress, tracking of cutter changes, and down time / utilization analysis, planning for geological back mapping and related analysis and correlation of machine performance to tunnel back mapping and geotech information available at bid time. (Sept. 2003 to Present)
• Preparation of protocols and contracts for heavy construction projects in Afghanistan for IKUB Consulting Ltd. Of McLean Va, with potential JV partners in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
• Preparation of Proposals for DOT/FHWA on Surveillance and Security of Bridges and Tunnels in conjunction with Concrete Technology Lab. Inc.
• Herrenknecht AG of Germany, working as PM on a two year study on hard rock TBM performance analysis and performance prediction.  This project involves establishing an extensive database of machine performance in different geological conditions and developing new TBM performance prediction models for rock mass applications.
• Wirth GMBH of Germany, working as a consultant on Karahnjukar Water Conveyance Tunnel Project of Iceland.  Preparation of TBM performance estimates in interbeded formations comprising basalt, sedimentary rocks, and scoria in addition to developing models for evaluation of cutterhead design and balancing, and estimation of cutter cost.
• Tabriz Metro, member of the technical evaluation committee for purchase of two 6.5 m diameter EPB machines for tunneling of main sections of underground network.  Development of final technical  evaluation tables and selection and recommendation of the machines for estimated value of $M20.
• March 2003 to June 2005, IKUB consulting Ltd.  Providing advise and expertise in the field of Mining, project evaluation, infrastructure development, and economic planning and growth of Afghanistan, Papu New Guini, and other third world countries.
• Review of Geotechnical and rock mechanic data for evaluation of TBM penetration rate in upper Chattahoochi tunnel project for Affholder Co. (through Brierley Associates)
• TBM performance analysis for Braintree-Waymouth tunnel project in Boston, MA for MWRA. (through Brierley Associates)

Brierley Associates, June 2000 to July 2003, part time associate from 2000 to 2002. Working in the area of tunneling, mechanical excavation, TBM performance prediction and analysis, roadheader application, general Geotechnical investigation and analysis, and tunnel design.

• Review of Geotechnical and rock mechanic data for evaluation of TBM penetration rate in upper Chattahoochi No 2 tunnel project for Affholder Co.
• TBM performance analysis for Braintree-Waymouth tunnel project in Boston, MA for MWRA.
• Geotechnical investigation, analysis, and site characterization for design of the tunnels for Automated People Mover and other utilities for Washington Dulles International Airport, Virginia.  This effort includes coordination of the field investigations and boring program, analysis of laboratory and field test results for soil and rock samples and geotechnical interpretation and analysis for preparation of GDR and GBR.  It also entails looking into groundwater level, drainage, cut and cover sections and related ground support issues such as lateral earth pressure and ground instrumentation.
• Geotechnical analysis of the ground conditions for Rio Piedras Trenurbano subway project in Porto Rico, including preparation of profiles and study of soil type and volume in construction of the stack drift station for analysis of the claim.  This project included mining of a station in soft ground by stacked drifts and tunneling through the shafts with Soft ground TBMs, particularly EPB machines.

• Analysis of the methods and alignment proposed by original study and revising the alignment and grade and method selection between cut and cover versus mined tunnels.
• Selection of the soft ground machines suitable to the type of soil encountered at the site and sizing of the tunnels (single VS double tube).
• Analysis of machine performance and advance rates as well as lining design
•  Preparation of RFPs for machine procurement

Sahel Consulting Group, Since April 1999, providing expertise on tunnel design, mechanical excavation and tunneling.

• Technical supervisor of Persian Gulf tunnel project involving the feasibility study of a 12 m diameter tunnel connecting Bandar Abbas and Geshm Island.  This includes preliminary (phase I) design of the tunnel and evaluation of construction methods
• Selection of Soft ground machines including EPB and Mix-shields appropriate for the ground conditions including the marl and unconsolidated sediments anticipated on the tunnel alignment.
• Preliminary evaluation of the construction method and costs for bidding on Kerman Long Term Water Supply Tunnel project, involving a 64 Km tunnel with a nominal diameter of 3-4 m providing water supply for the city of Kerman and surrounding region
• Design analysis and support as well as preparation of bid documents for design-build contract of Ghomrud 36 km water conveyance tunnel packages 2, 3, and 4. 

January 1999 to summer 2002, Dept of Mining Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tehran.  Assistant Professor in mining engineering department, with about 250 undergraduate students and 75 graduate students.  University of Tehran is the oldest, largest, and one of the most prestigious state owned universities in Iran.  Mining Department has been one of the first four departments in the Faculty of Engineering offering BSc. in mining engineering and mine exploration engineering.  The graduate programs include mining engineering, exploration engineering, rock mechanics, mineral processing, and recently petroleum exploration engineering.  This department was selected for center of excellence in mining engineering by the Ministry of Higher Education of Iran in 2001.

June 1990 to 2000, Excavation Engineering and Earth Mechanics Institute (EMI), Department of Mining Engineering, Colorado School of Mines (CSM). 90-97, as Research Assistant, 97-2000 as Deputy Director.  Working in the area of testing and physical modeling of rock properties, rock fragmentation, theoretical modeling of disc cutters and cutting forces, performance optimization and prediction and cost estimation for mechanical excavators including tunnel boring machines (TBM), roadheaders, microtunneling machines, drill bits, shaft boring and drilling, raise boring machine, continuous miners, longwall drum shearers.  Also worked in the area of cutterhead design and balancing for the mechanical excavators through computer modeling.

• Research Works:
• Peer review of soft ground tunneling and microtunneling for proposed nuclear waste repository in clay for Europe.  Evaluation of the concepts and scenarios for machine advance and emplacement of waste.
• Analysis of ground conditions and bit life evaluation for microtunneling in soft ground including soft sandstone under an active port in Atlanta for Jordan-Jones- Golding JJG.
• General Geotechnical investigations for excavation of structures in soil and rock, including logging, physical property and rock/soil mechanics testing, design of the testing programs, evaluation of the test results, and reporting.
• Performance prediction and analysis for soft ground and hard rock TBMs in numerous job sites and projects in US and abroad, including the geotechnical (GDSR) pre-bid documents, machine specification review with owners and manufacturers, claims and arbitration for owners and contractors, some examples are as follows:
  • Manipouri Tunnel Project, New Zealand
  • Diamond Fork Tunnel Project, CO
  • Boston Outfall Tunnel Project,
  • New York Queen Tunnel Project, Package 2
  • Pikes Peak tunnel Project, Colorado Springs, CO
• Development of models for design, simulation, and performance prediction of all types of mechanical excavators.
• Modeling of the cutterhead and design modifications for microtunneling machines, working with Iseki microtunneling machine manufacturer of Japan. 
• Development of new excavation machinery for hard rock mining and underground development in hard rock formations including Yucca Mountain welded tuff. 
• Study of the diamond coring, reaming, and dry drilling for Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site.
• Design, fabrication, and field testing of small diameter drill bits for mining applications.
• Design, fabrication, and field testing cutterhead drum for roadmilling machines for application in concrete and Gypsum. Field testing of the designed head at National Gypsum in New Brunswick, Canada.
• Design evaluation for the CM heads and drum shearers for Willow Creek Coal Performance prediction and analysis and design modifications for roadheaders in several tunneling jobs, mining operations including salt, potash, trona, and gypsum.
  • Modeling of continuous miner for design analysis and optimization in several projects including coal, salt and potash mining in cooperation with Joy mining machinery, Voest Alpine, and other manufacturers. Working on the CM head design for Wabash Mine, Evansville, Illinois.
  • Working on the CM head design for Stockton Coal Mine, Virginia.
  • Design evaluation for the CM heads and drum shearers for Willow Creek Coal Mine, Utah
  • Design of drum shearer for Clerance Mine in Australia.
  • Design and modeling of the cutterhead for CMs for high wall mining in Virginia, For Amvest Corporation.
• Design of disc-drum shearer for application in longwall coal mining operation with hard roof rock.  Field testing of the designed longwall drum for both hard rock and regular coal configurations at Twentymile Coal Mine, Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
• Design of tests to measure the stress distribution in rock cutting tools including disc cutters. Instrumentation using strain gages and other sensors for application in load cells, measurement of load, deformation and stress distribution in different media.
• Working with rock cutting tool manufacturers (i.e. Kennemetal) for their new tool developments.

ROCKSOL consulting group Inc. Boulder, Colorado, Summer 1997-2000, part time associate, study of the underground mining of salts and evaporites at Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  Developing proposals for research and geotechnical support of the site in ground modeling, instrumentation, rock mechanics, and rock fragmentation.

International Environmental Technology Corporation (IET&C), Las Cruses New Mexico, Spring-Summer 1996, member of the peer review panel evaluating the final report on Engineered Alternative Cost Benefit Study (EACBS) for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) at Carlsbad, New Mexico.  The review was performed for DOE Carlsbad Area Office on the report prepared by IT corporation for Westinghouse Waste Isolation Division (WID), DOE operating contractor.  The independent peer review was the requirement of the US EPA as a part of compliance application for the permitting of WIPP to receive and dispose transuranic waste.  The review was conducted in accordance to NUREG-1297 to assess the compliance of the final report with 40-CFR part 194.  A report titled “Independent Peer Review of the US DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant Engineered Alternative Cost/Benefit Study Final Report” was issued on July 10, 1996. 

NSA Engineering (formerly D.M. Neil & Associates) International Mining and Tunneling Consultant, Golden, Colorado. Fall 1992 -1999, part time associate.  Performance and production rate estimate as well as design and lacing of cutterheads of underground excavation machinery, tunnel support design, and software development.  Also feasibility study and equipment selection for a few mines and underground operations. 

• Rock bolt design evaluation for several coal mine entries, modeling with Phases, Un-Wedge and other commercial rock mechanics and simulation programs.
• Alternative design, equipment selection, performance prediction, cutterhead design optimization and simulation, and feasibility study of mechanized mining operation using mechanical excavators and continuous haulage systems for Western AG. (Potash / Langbenite) mine in Carlsbad New Mexico.
• Performance analysis for various tunneling and excavation machines in several projects in conjunction with Voest-Alpine machine manufacturers of Austria.

Excavation Engineering Associates, Seattle, Washington, Summer 1993-2002, part time associate/ consultant, design and performance prediction for a variety of mechanical excavators including TBMs and microtunneling machines.  Designing and refurbishing a micro tunneling machine for work in soft sandstone including the selection of bits, layout, and mounting and fabrication drawings.

Iranian Institute of Mineral Research & Applications (IMRA), Tehran, Iran., August 1987 to May 1989, Mineral processing research group.  Research on physical separation and flotation of flourspar and associated sulfates and salts, primary feasibility study of processing plant.

Kerman Coal Mines Co., Kerman, Iran.  Summer 1987, underground coal mines.  All phases of mining from exploration to development and to longwall extraction in steeply dipped coal seams in Pabdana and Babnizu basin.

Non-ferrous Mining Co. of Isfehan, Iran. Summer 1985, a subsidiary of Iranian National Steel Corporation.  Mining in underground and surface refractory mines, 2 Mt/yr limestone quarry, and dolomite mines. 

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