Underground Construction - September 2018 - 42

REHABTECHNOLOGY

Steve Mortensen, P.E.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
NASSCO just completed its
43nd year and continues
to set standards for the
assessment and rehabilitation
of underground infrastructure.

As the association experiences
remarkable growth, this series
proﬁles those who have made
signiﬁcant contributions,
and impacted the continued
acceptance and growth of
trenchless rehabilitation
methods. This is a bi-monthly
installment in a series of
articles exploring the history
of NASSCO through the eyes of
industry leaders.
This month, NASSCO honors
Steve Mortensen, co-founder
of Project Engineering
Consultants, Phoenix, Ariz. He
has been an integral part of
both the rehabilitation industry
and the growth of NASSCO for
more than 35 years.

SEPTEMBER 2018 | UConOnline.com

Growing up in Phoenix, Ariz.
taught me to love the desert.
Soon I will be entering my 70th
year and I hope to always call
Phoenix home.
The first time I lived anywhere other than Arizona was
in the late 1960s when I was 18
years old and was drafted into
the United States Army. Upon
completion of engineering and
airborne training, I was shipped
off to Vietnam in March 1969,
serving there for a total of 365
days. Not that I was counting
the days or anything! I left Vietnam on Friday, March 13, and
therefore Friday the 13th has
always been a very lucky day
for me.
While in Vietnam I was assigned to the 27th Engineering
Battalion (Airborne) at Gia Le
adjoining Camp Eagle, which
was southeast of the city of
Hue near the Demilitarized
Zone. I guess you could say
this is where my infrastructure
industry experience began. My
Division built roads from the
city through the forest out to
Firebase Bastogne, Firebase
Blaze and other smaller firebases, all of which were located
in the middle of the jungle and
designed to provide artillery fire
support to infantry units.
We designed strategic areas
along the road near the A Sau
Valley to support Hamburger Hill. This was a joint U.S.
Army and Army of the Republic
of Vietnam military operation that was designed to keep
pressure on the People's Army
of Vietnam to stop them from
mounting attacks on coastal

Left: Steve Mortensen; Right: Pictured in Vietnam in 1969, Mortensen served with
the 27th Engineering Battalion.

provinces via the Ho Chi Minh
Trail. During my year in Vietnam, I transferred from my engineer role to one of a mechanic
servicing trucks, which I am
convinced played a part in my
survival.

Civilian life
When I returned from Vietnam
in 1970 I was transferred to
the 82nd airborne unit in Fort
Bragg, N.C. When my service
ended in 1972, I headed back
to Arizona driving my brother's
car, which broke down on the
side of the road along the way
in North Carolina. I hitchhiked
the rest of the journey home
to Phoenix, where I took a job
with American Engineering as
a draftsman. After a little over
two years on the job I realized I
wanted a career shift, so I headed for Brigham Young University to continue my education.
I met my wife Pam at BYU
and, coincidentally, she was
from North Carolina. We graduated in April of 1978 and I
convinced her to return to
Phoenix with me. She did a little kicking and screaming, but

finally obliged. She's been living
in the desert with me for more
than 40 years now, and she still
doesn't like it! But we have four
sons who are now grown and
love living in Arizona, so she
makes the best of it.
Once we were back in Phoenix I returned to American
Engineering, this time pursing
work with its land development division. Projects included
huge developments - 2,000 to
3,000 acres each - in the Mesa,
Scottsdale and Phoenix areas.
I worked in that position for
about five years until in 1982, I
was ready to have more responsibility and earn more to raise
my growing family. I accepted
a job with another engineering
firm, Wadsworth Jensen and
Associates, which does a lot of
transportation work. After six
months on the job I partnered
up with the gentleman who
hired me, Larry Maldonado, to
start our own firm, Project Engineering Consultants (PEC).
The year was 1983 and we
started by offering land development services because that's
what we knew. Our combined

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Underground Construction - September 2018

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