Alumni Spotlight
Henry Russell ’61 Receives Prestigious Engineering Industry Award
Adapted from the Engineering News Record
Henry Russell ’61. Photo credit: Engineering News Record
Next time you travel safely through a vehicle or train tunnel, consider the enormously complex engineering expertise required to complete that project.
Henry Russell, who worked on many well-known tunnel projects, a member of English High School’s Class of ‘61, has received the prestigious 2024 Legacy Award conferred by ENR New England.
The prize is from the Engineering News-Record (ENR), a weekly magazine that provides news, analysis, data and opinion for the construction industry worldwide. It is one of the industry’s most authoritative publications, considered by many to be the ‘bible’ of the industry.
Five Decades, Six Continents
Henry, now 80, who has spent over five decades in engineering on six continents, is considered an international tunnel expert with special expertise in waterproofing systems, fireproofing materials, and grouting for underground structures.
His earliest tunnel memory? Riding Boston’s subway on his grandfather’s lap. His grandfather was a motorman for the old MTA and allowed 4-year-old Henry to ring the trolley bell as they pulled into Park Street Station.
Henry graduated from Curry College in Milton, Mass., with a geology degree. While serving in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1967 to 1973, he worked for a small civil engineering firm before becoming a research assistant at MIT for T. William Lambe, a geotechnical engineering professor who designed soil experiments for the Apollo space program and helped develop methods for tunnel instrumentation, including some used for tunnel extensions.
Henry Left His Mark on Many Huge Infrastructure Projects
Those lessons put Henry in good stead as he has worked on such diverse projects as the Taipei Metro tunnels, Venezuelan wharfs, and a West African liquefied natural gas plant. He was also involved in some of the largest U.S. infrastructure projects such as Boston’s Central Artery and Seattle’s Alaskaway.
Among Henry‘s other industry contributions: He developed a system to identify structural defects that was adopted by the Federal Highway Administration and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials for their tunnel design manuals, and chaired an International Tunneling Association working group that established structural guidelines for road tunnel fire protection. In 2022 he received the association’s distinguished service award for these recommendations, which were adopted by the National Fire Protection Association. He currently chairs a national committee on tunnel repair for the Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration/Underground Construction Association, which recognized him for lifetime achievement in tunnel rehabilitation in 2020.
Randall Essex, a former tunneling association executive council member and VP, says Henry contributed ideas and solutions “without concern for company loyalty or personal financial gain. Such traits are rare in our industry these days.”
Henry has published more than 35 papers, book chapters or manuals on engineering geology, tunnel rehabilitation and grouting as well as slurry wall construction. He continues to work as a field supervisor for inspections and investigations. He says he was drawn to the “challenge” of tunnel engineering because “it’s dynamic—every project is site specific and requires a lot of analytical thinking.”
An International Reputation – And A Love of Training Young People
With his skill in tunnel repair and rehabilitation, Henry rose to senior VP and technical director for tunnel rehabilitation at Parsons Brinckerhoff. In 1990, he was deployed to Chicago after a freight tunnel under the Chicago River collapsed and flooded the city’s Loop district. Later he served as an engineer’s representative for the Boston Harbor Effluent Outfall Tunnel project to clean the harbor’s dirty water. Untreated sewage had poured into it for years.
Whatever U.S. tunnel comes up in conversation, Henry says he’s inspected it. Coworkers are impressed that “He will state precisely which year, with all the information related to the construction method and potential issues with that specific tunnel.” Henry says he “enjoys his work” and has no plans to retire as long as he’s healthy. “I have a lot in the back of my head to train young people,” he explains, “and I like doing that. That’s part of giving back to your profession.”
Henry is a longtime board member of The English High School Association. He says English High is where he learned how to “analyze items in the scientific method, which served me well throughout my career. Now I want to share my knowledge with today’s English High students.”
