Rohrbach’s focus on the technical side is solving unique and challenging (often contractor-side) geotechnical and geostructural design problems. He has been involved with seven soft ground tunnels, two hard rock tunnels, two potash/salt mines, and countless shoring and ground improvement design projects.
His participation in ASCE began in 2001 when he was a student and has continued nearly uninterrupted for more than 20 years. He is a two-term past president of ASCE’s Tacoma/Olympia Section (2010-2012), a former director of technical committees for the Seattle Section (2018-2020), and has held nearly every position within the Seattle Chapter of the Geo-Institute (GI, which includes his most recent and current position as Seattle GI chapter advisor).
In 2007 Rohrbach received the ASCE Seattle Section’s Outstanding Project award for his work on the Silver Reef Hotel / Casino Expansion in Ferndale, Washington. This project required rapid design and construction of a six-story cast-in-place concrete hotel on liquefiable soils overlaying very soft, highly compressible soils, where more than 12 inches of settlement was anticipated.
He grew up in a very rural area of Buck Township, Pennsylvania. Shortly after graduating high school, he entered the Army, where he served over five years as an Airborne Ranger and later as a commissioned engineering officer. Following active-duty military service, he earned an MSCE (soil mechanics) degree from the University of Washington.
Away from work, Rohrbach serves as a foster parent and has provided in-home but nonpermanent care for more than a dozen abused or neglected children. He is also a FIFA-licensed soccer referee.
