RETC 2025 Full Proceedings - RETC2025

We are thrilled to welcome you to the 2025 Rapid Excavation and Tunneling Conference (RETC), which will be held in Dallas, TX. This year’s conference will showcase the continued trend of strong industry interest, as there will be a record setting 115 papers being presented over the course of three days. The set of papers compiled in this book captures the latest and greatest information on a broad array of topics within our fascinating tunneling industry. We hope that the compilation of selected papers in this book will provide a comprehensive recap of the conference while also providing a source of future reference for contractors, engineers, and anyone in general who is a student of our beloved and unique industry. Since its inception in 1972, RETC has been the preeminent tunneling forum to promote ideas, tell stories, share lessons learned, and promote new technologies. RETC prides itself on its focus towards highlighting real-world experiences and practical ideas, with the intent to help the entire industry learn from one another and grow. The need for us all to stay sharp and remain on the cutting edge of technology has never been stronger – the technology and ideas that have been applied in aerospace are now attempting to mix with tunneling, and the advancement of AI continues to permeate all industries. However, no amount of technology or AI can fully replace the human element, and in our tunneling industry, the human element is key and is what sets us apart. In tunneling, every project is different, because the ground is always different. We can only take what the ground will give us, and we must rely on our past experiences to get through present day challenges. Most importantly, we must rely on each other. This is the heart of what RETC is all about. For those of you attending this conference, we encourage you to attend as many sessions as possible and engage with your colleagues to discuss during the breaks in between sessions. This sharing of ideas is what keeps us connected and helps to expand our industry. Please also try to engage with the scholarship students and the newcomers who will be in attendance, as it is the new ideas and fresh energy from the next generation that will continue to make our industry thrive into the future. The program chairs thank and greatly appreciate the efforts made by our session chairs, co-chairs, authors, the members of the RETC Executive Committee, and most importantly the SME staff towards making this RETC possible.