Senior Professional Associate,
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Los Angeles, CA
Amanda Elioff is a geotechnical and tunneling engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) in Los Angeles. Her background is in the design and analysis of tunnels and underground structures for transportation and water projects. She has also participated in the design and design management of conventional facilities for the Super Conducting Super Collider (SSC) project, a physics research facility. Her project responsibilities have included managing multi-disciplinary design teams, conducting geotechnical investigations, development of contract specifications, preparation of geotechnical baseline reports, conducting feasibility studies, and providing on-site construction support services. She has also worked on the development of seismic design criteria for underground structures and in testing and design of mitigation measures for gassy underground conditions.
In addition to Amanda's project responsibilities, she has been active in a number of professional associations - International Tunneling Association (ITA). American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Underground Construction Association of the Society of Mining Engineers (UCA of SME). More recent selected tunneling project highlights are:
Los Angeles Metro: Amanda is currently project manager for the advanced conceptual engineering phase of Westside Subway Extension. This line is planned to extend Los Angeles' heavy rail system almost 20 km from the existing subway lines. This effort includes evaluation of tunneling and station construction in an area that formerly had a tunneling prohibition due to high levels of methane gas.
Prior to the Westside, Amanda worked from planning to the revenue service on design and construction of Metro's Gold Line Eastside Extension. This line extended the system 17 km, with approximately 3 km in subway. The line opened for revenue service in November 2009. The design innovations included specifications for pressure-face tunnel boring machines and a precast concrete segmental tunnel lining with a double-gasket seal to resist water and gas leakage during seismic events. During tunneling, Amanda was located on-site to provide design services during construction as part of Metro’s integrated project management team.
Route 710 Tunnel Feasibility Technical Assessment: Amanda evaluated feasibility of large-diameter tunnels (over 50 ft) intended to complete a 6.4 km "gap" in the Los Angeles County's freeway system.
Water and Wastewater : Amanda's tunnel design experience in Los Angeles includes the North East Interceptor Sewer Phase 2/Glendale Burbank Interceptor Sewer. She managed preliminary design of this proposed 17 km sewer to be constructed by tunneling. In Portland, OR, Amanda assisted in preliminary design for the City's Westside and Eastside CSO tunnels. These 6.4 and 5.6 km-long tunnels were the first large diameter tunnels in the United States to use slurry face tunnel boring machines.
Amanda and her co-authors have published and presented a number of papers on the Metro Rail and other projects at the ITA World Congresses, the SME's Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conferences, and the SME's North American Tunneling Conference. Most recently, she was invited to present a US perspective on urban tunneling at the Open Session at the ITA's World Tunneling Congress in Budapest, Hungary.
Amanda received her MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of California and Texas.