New UCA executive committee members begin terms

Erika Moonin was named UCA Chair during the 2023 Rapid Excavation & Tunneling Conference (RETC) in Boston, MA June 11-14. Moonin will serve as chair for two years. Lonnie Jacobs was named UCA Vice Chair during the meeting, and Mike Rispin moved to the role of Past Chair. Bob Goodfellow, Tony J. O’Donnell, Matt Preedy and Red Robinson completed their terms on the executive committee.Everett Litton, Paul Madsen and Anthony Pooley were elected to serve on the executive committee as directors. The 2023 UCA Executive Committee consists of Moonin (Chair), Jacobs (Vice Chair), Rispin (Past Chair), Jay Arabshahi, Michael Bruen, Matthew Crow, John T. DiPonio, John Huh, Mark Johnson, Jonathan Klug, Litton, Madsen, Pooley, Daniel Riggs, Paul Schmall, Grover Vargas, Michael Vitale, Sarah Wilson, Moussa Wone and Shane Yanagisawa. Erika Moonin, P.E., founder and president of Moonin Associates PLLC, based in Las Vegas, NV, is a licensed professional civil engineer in California and Nevada with 30 years of experience in the civil and heavy civil/underground construction industry.Moonin earned her bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1991. She worked as a consultant in the beginning of her career, followed by 25 years with the Las Vegas Valley Water District/Southern Nevada Water Authority managing large water infrastructure programs for Southern Nevada and interfacing with many local, state, regional and federal agencies related to the Colorado River Basin. She was the engineer project manager of the Major Projects Team and led integrated teams of professionals to successfully plan, design and construct various water supply projects valued from $35 million to $2.2 billion. Her most challenging project was the Lake Mead Intake No. 3, which is a critical water intake tunnel that ensures continued access to the local communities’ primary drinking-water source even with drastic lowering lake levels due to drought. This was a technically challenging underground project — setting the world record for the highest-pressure tunnel constructed by a tunnel boring machine (TBM).In 2019, Moonin formed her own consulting company, Moonin Associates, a 100 percent female-owned and certified Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) firm, to assist other owners and major project teams with major technically challenging underground and tunneling infrastructure projects.Moonin has a passion for serving the industry. During her career she volunteered and mentored young professionals through her involvement at work and at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), serving in various local, regional and society board-level positions for more than 20 years. She has served as a board member for four years and vice chair for two years. She is an industry advisor to the Colorado School of Mines’ underground program. Leon “Lonnie” Jacobs has almost 40 years of New York metropolitan area heavy civil and underground construction experience. Jacobs began his underground career working for a joint venture of McLean-Grove, Grow Tunneling and Kiewit in 1982 as a co-op student and then after graduation in several engineering positions on the New York City Third Water Tunnel.In 1988, Jacobs went to work for Perini as a project engineer on numerous transit and wastewater projects in the New York City region until joining Frontier-Kemper in 1995. Some of the projects he has constructed with Frontier-Kemper over the past 28 years include the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Water Tunnel Shaft 26B; the 26 Ward Water Pollution Control Plant Pilot Program; the New Croton Aqueduct Rehabilitation Project; the TBTA Queens Midtown Tunnel Rehabilitation Project; the NJ Transit Hudson Bergen Light Rail Weehawken Tunnel/Bergenline Avenue Station Project; rehabilitation of the New Croton Aqueduct; MTA East Side Access Manhattan North Structures and the Cleaning and Inspection of City Tunnel No. 3, Stage 2, in Queens and Brooklyn.Jacobs’ professional responsibilities at Frontier-Kemper have covered all facets of heavy construction from project management to engineering and includes experience in design, schedule, cash flow, insurance, safety, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, estimating, budget production, risk management, quality control, change-order negotiation, customization of equipment, design of specialized equipment, value engineering, claims, depositions, human resources and strategic planning.In addition to his work experience, Jacobs has served several industry associations and presented at numerous conferences. Highlights include serving on the UCA George A. Fox Conference committee since 2007, including serving as chair in 2008, 2009, 2015 and 2016. He was recently nominated as vice chair of the North American Tunneling (NAT) Conference planning committee and has participated in organizing the 2012, 2014 and 2016 NAT Conferences. He was vice chair of the 2016 NAT Conference committee when it was held in conjunction with the World Tunnel Congress.Jacobs earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering, cum laude, degree from Northeastern University in Boston in 1985, and a master of science in construction management from Brooklyn Polytechnic University in 1988. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the states of New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. He is also a board-certified Safety Professional. He is a member, trustee and Publicity Committee chair of The Moles, a fraternal organization of heavy construction industry distinguished professionals. Besides the UCA, Jacobs’ industry association memberships include the Civil Engineering Honor Society, Chi Epsilon, New York State Society of Professional Engineers and ASCE. Anthony Pooley has worked in the construction industry for more than 35 years, mainly on the design and construction management of tunnels and underground structures. He has worked on major transit and wastewater projects in the United Kingdom, Southeast Asia and the United States, and at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. He is currently working at Sound Transit in Seattle, WA where he is part of the team developing designs for the upcoming West Seattle and Ballard Link Extensions, which will be the largest single expansion of Seattle’s light-rail system to date. Everett Litton, P.E., ENV SP is a vice president and senior technical principal at WSP USA within the firm’s Geotechnical & Tunneling National Business Line in St. Louis, MO. Litton has more than 16 years of experience in the underground construction industry, involving assessment, design and construction for more than 1,100 miles of tunneling and trenchless technology pipeline projects. He is a registered Professional Engineer and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla, MO. His experience includes assessment, design and construction management for a variety of tunneling and trenchless technology projects internationally and throughout North America.Early in his career, Everett worked extensively in the field for a variety of pipeline, dam and conventional tunneling projects.Litton is proud to be an advocate for the UCA. He has been actively involved with the UCA for more than 10 years, including serving previously as the vice chair and chair of the UCA Young Members, and is currently the lead for the UCA’s “Down For That” (DFT) initiative that focuses on university outreach to more than 175 universities throughout North America on behalf of the UCA, ASCE, The Moles, the Beavers, the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) and the North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT). He is the UCA’s organization liaison with the NASTT, has been a session chair at the NAT and RETC conferences, and serves on the UCA’s Working Group 3 committee, which is aligned with the International Tunnelling Association’s (ITA) Contractual Practices working group. Paul Madsen is with Kiewit Infrastructure Co.’s Underground District and has been with the company for 30 years in roles ranging from field engineer, estimator, and project manager. His project experience ranges from the Storebælt Tunnel in Denmark to several major, and minor, tunnels across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Projects he has worked on include the Devil’s Slide tunnel in California and East Side Access in New York.Madsen is a member of The Moles and active on the Fox Conference Organizing Committee, where he was conference chair in 2019 and 2020. Madsen is on the Cutting Edge Conference Organizing Committee where he was conference chair in 2022. Previously Madsen was on the North American Tunneling Conference Committee and served as track and program chair. n

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