Thoughts after 4 years on Europe’s largest infrastructure projects

In 2012, I was given the opportunity to work in one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world at that moment: Crossrail in London, UK.

Unfortunately, every journey comes to an end and even though Crossrail is not yet finished (the line officially opens in 2018) my role has come to an end.

I thought I should share some of my thoughts with whoever reads these posts anyways…

1. The Big School

Every project is a different adventure and challenge.

This is one of the benefits of being in construction industry and at some point you have to accept that mobility is part of your profession. There are very few roles in this industry that do not require a relocation every 4-5 years (at least…) and in my opinion this is the beauty of the whole thing: you are in a constant change.

No matter how big or small a project is, there are always new challenges, new problems to solve, new colleagues to work with, new Clients to deal with and new grounds to be broken.

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to work on both sides of this gargantuan project called Crossrail in London from both sides (Contractor and Client).

Building such a massive project is not an easy thing.

A £16bn project in the heart of one of the world’s busiest cities is not something you just…design and build. Some serious planning and collaboration must come in place for such an achievement. New processes have to be invented and new methods have to be established in order to make the whole thing work properly.

Hundreds of contractors and subcontractors along with numerous designers have to work together to deliver a project of a scale that was never seen before (at least not in the UK).

The things that I expeexperiencedn Crossrail was the biggest school I have ever attended in my life as an Engineer and as a Quality Professional. Crossrail will always be my reference on how things should be done from now on in any other project I’ll get the opportunity to work at.

2. My wishes

Nothing is perfect in this world and I am definitely not saying that everything should have been planned or structured differently.

But these things could have been better or different:

• use of a more modern EDMS
• less authoritarian people on the Client side
• much better communication between all stakeholders
• better tools on the field to record site data

The project is still being built and obviously it’s too late for a change but these are my thoughtful wishes for the next big one in UK.