Nasri Munfah becomes partner and principal at Gall Zeidler Consultants

Munfah will be responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s strategic long-term growth plan in tunnelling and underground construction business across the Americas. He will provide technical leadership in business development, strategic pursuits, project delivery, and drive growth and professional development of staff.

With more than 40 years’ experience in tunnelling and underground engineering design and construction, Munfah has been responsible for the successful delivery of multi-billion-dollar projects from conceptual engineering through construction in the traditional design-bid-build and alternative delivery methods, including DB, DBF, CMGC, P-DB and P3. His experience encompasses TBM bored tunnels, SEM/NATM tunnels, cut and cover, and immersed tube tunnels for transportation, water conveyance and energy projects.

Among Munfah’s notable projects are the Istanbul Strait Crossing, a 13.7m (45ft) diameter underwater tunnel; the Alaskan Way Tunnel in Seattle, a 17.45m (57.3ft) diameter TBM tunnel; the US$12bn East Side Access Program in New York; the Central Subway project in San Francisco; and the US$11bn Gateway program in New York.

“It is a pleasure to have Nasri join us in this capacity to drive our growth during this period of abundant opportunities in the Americas’ market,” said Vojtech Gall, co-founder and a principal of the company. “I have known and worked with Nasri for over 20 years, and I am confident in his ability to help us provide our clients with innovative solutions and groundbreaking approaches on a wide range of tunnelling projects.”

Munfah has led national and global tunneling practices in several large engineering companies. He has also held leadership roles in several professional organisations, published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers, lectured in universities and short courses on topics related to technical and management aspects of underground construction, and has received numerous awards in acknowledgment of his contributions. He has been an adjunct professor in Columbia University’s Civil Engineering Department and was the principal investigator and the primary author of FHWA’s Technical Manual for Design and Construction of Road Tunnels, actively contributing to the development of the first tunnel design manual published in the US.