Jacobs Associates, underground experts.
There is more than one “Jacobs” in engineering, but there is only one choice for the underground, and it’s an easy one. While Jacobs Engineering is one of the larger multidiscipline engineering firms in the U.S., Jacobs Associates specializes in underground engineering and construction management, while also providing the broader heavy civil market with civil claims and dispute resolution services. We have the largest concentration of underground engineering experts in the business.
For more than 50 years, Jacobs Associates’ services have focused on design, construction management, and program management for underground projects. Being smaller and more specialized allows us to be more responsive to our client’s needs, assuring their projects will go smoothly and their goals will be met with customized solutions that reflect state-of-the-art practice in tunnel engineering.
Our projects include many “firsts.”
The 5-mile-long Bay Tunnel is the first tunnel to be constructed under the San Francisco Bay. As part of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s upgrade of the Hetch Hetchy Water System, it will help ensure a reliable water supply from Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area, replacing aging and vulnerable pipelines.
Being a smaller specialty firm does not dictate the size of our projects.
For the $750 million Sound Transit University Link Light Rail extension from downtown Seattle to the University of Washington, Jacobs Associates provided overall project management, tunnel and station design, and geotechnical engineering as part of the North Link Transit Partners joint venture. And in New York City, working with the McKissack+Delcan Joint Venture, we are providing engineering oversight and program management services for four major projects in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $8 billion Capital Program.
We work on projects around the world.
Jacobs Associates has worked in Australia since the 1950s. Notable projects include the Melbourne CityLink, Australia’s largest infrastructure project at its completion in 2000, with more than 46 kilometers (29 miles) of new and modified structures. In the 1990s, Jacobs Associates was intimately involved in the design and construction of highway tunnels for the Melbourne City Link and the M5 Motorway in Sydney. More recently, we helped design the initial tunnel support and final lining for the Brisbane Airport Link (APL) and Northern Busway projects. Underground work includes twin, three-lane mainline tunnels; 5 one- to three-lane on- and off-ramp tunnels; and a two-lane busway tunnel. In addition, we have recently commenced tunnel design and consulting assignments for some of the largest tunneling projects ever planned in Auckland, New Zealand: the Central Interceptor sewer tunnels and the Avondale Heights highway tunnels, part of the SH20 Waterview Connection. Finally, we have also started work on our first major project in eastern Canada: the light rail transit conversion project for the City of Ottawa.
When it comes to the underground, you can trust the experts.
Jacobs Associates is always seeking ways to improve design, construction, sustainability, and safety. For the City of Portland’s Balch Consolidation Conduit, Shafts, and Pipelines Project, five of the microtunnel shafts are being constructed with the new and innovative cutter soil mixing method (CSM), used under difficult soil conditions.
Our claims/dispute resolution services have supported the heavy construction industry for over four decades.
We have provided claims and dispute resolution services to contractors, owners, attorneys, and sureties, working on projects as diverse as EuroDisney (aka Disneyland Paris) in France, the North Runway Repair at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, the Wailea Beach Villas Condominium Development on the island of Maui, and the Central Artery Project in Boston.
So, when people ask, which Jacobs are you?—the answer is easy:
We’re cut from the same cloth as the Jacobs Associates pioneers who started working underground over 50 years ago, and we’re the ones who are here today, bringing innovative solutions to the underground and heavy construction industry.
- Question: What’s a good recipe for constructing a shaft?
Answer: Soil, cement, then mix.
Learn More - Question: Do engineers get their hands dirty?
Answer: Most definitely.
Learn More - Question: Can Construction Claims Be Avoided?
Answer: Yes.
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