Marquardt

Jim Marquardt is senior vice president of J.F. Shea Construction, Inc. He began his career at 19 after one year of college when he joined the Metro subway tunnel project in Washington, D.C. as a surveyor. He rose to become a national leader who has influenced the construction industry and is recognized as an expert in tunnel construction.

His early career involved the basic drill and shoot tunneling technique, but he took advantage of the opportunity to get involved in revolutionizing tunnel construction with the New Austrian tunneling method (NATM) and the sequential excavation method (SEM), which use the inherent geological strength of the surrounding rock mass to stabilize the tunnel. Jim oversaw more than $3 billion of joint venture work in the New York area, including the Number Seven Line Project for the NY Metropolitan Transit Authority, in which he served as project director.

He is a long-time member of The Moles, serving as its president (2015). He has been honored by the Beavers with its Golden Beavers Award for Supervision and by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration/American Underground-Construction Association (SME/AUA) with its Outstanding Individual Award.