Obituary 27 Mar 2018

George Yoggy, a 50-year veteran of the concrete and shotcrete industry and recognized as a leader in the field, died on 27 March 2018, aged 80, after an extended battle with cancer.

George D Yoggy 1937-2018

Originally from Johnson City, New York, it was a college construction job in 1956 that introduced Yoggy to his career path. The contractor he worked for had a shotcrete division and he learned about the process on the job. Eventually, Yoggy became the Eastern Division manager for the contractor’s equipment manufacturing division.

In 1968, he established his own company, Concrete Equipment Corp, and in 1978 he started Shotcrete Plus Inc business engaged in the design, manufacture and supply of equipment for ground support, shotcreting and concrete placing systems in the North American tunneling, repair and mining industries. One of his first major projects was the shotcrete support of the basement and foundation excavations of the original World Trade Center buildings in the early 1970s.

In 1986, he sold his companies to Master Builders Inc and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he established the Underground Construction Group (UCG) for Master Builders. As leader of UCG, he transformed the group into the domestic and international leader in the development of new concrete and shotcrete technologies and material placing systems. Following his retirement from Master Builders, Yoggy continued working in the industry as a consultant and remained active in associations and conferences.

Yoggy was involved in many major underground infrastructure projects during his long career with the implementation of engineered high-performance shotcrete systems that accompanied the introduction of NATM/SEM construction practices to North America. In the USA these introductory projects included the Washington DC WMATA subway system; the Sound Transit subway in Seattle; New York Water Tunnel and the Mt Lebanon, Lehigh and Cumberland Gap highway tunnels. More recently he was involved in the expansion of the subway system in New York City, working with contractors on quality shotcrete application programs for the East Side Access underground railway project, the No 7 Line subway extension and the Second Avenue station and tunnel subway works.

As a founding member in 1998 of the American Shotcrete Association (ASA), and as a member of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 506, Yoggy was a leading advocate for development of shotcrete specifications and in 1999, he contributed to the development of the ASA/ACI Shotcrete Nozzleman Certification program.

As well as a frequent speaker and author of technical papers, Yoggy was involved in the management structure of the American Underground Association (AUA), from 1999 to 2005 which has since evolved into the American Underground Construction Association (UCA). He served as President of the AUA from 2001 to 2003 and in June 2009, he was awarded the UCA Lifetime Achievement Award for his many industry contributions.

He was also involved in the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, the American Concrete Institute, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM).