Project Manager Antonio Romeo is managing three Implenia roadworks projects in the Zürich region from the Grünau roadworks. After many years at SMEs, he has now been experiencing everyday life at the largest Swiss construction company for the past six months. What has the experienced professional learned during that time?
Antonio, what challenges do you face on a site like Grünau?
In 18 months and with 23 people we’re building a CHF 10-million project that extends over 1.5 km. Just the size of the project alone is a challenge. The complex logistics with two parallel trenches along the autobahn slip roads and the proximity to other large building sites. We’re working on both city and national territory – with different requirements. And we’re permanently under time and cost pressure. We reached all the agreed milestones in the first half of the year – so we can be very proud. But to make that succeed needs plenty of commitment and an agile team – THANK YOU to everyone!
«We’ve reached all the milestones so far – THANK YOU to the whole team»
Antonio Romeo, Projektleiter
What does agile planning look like?
During the tendering process we assume ideal conditions – there are no reserves for bad weather or unexpected obstacles in the ground. After this rainy summer at the latest we were reminded once again that these ideal conditions don’t exist. On such a big site we have specialist teams, for surfacing work, for example. If we can’t do this work when it’s raining, we have to use these teams at a different location – for work they might not be able to do so quickly or easily. We have to take that into account in our planning.
You have plenty of experience Are you still learning new things?
As far as this site is concerned, I’ve already experienced a lot. One recent highlight was the eight flush borings for the district heating and cooling pipelines, all of which were over 160 metres long – that was also an exciting time for me. Otherwise, there are a lot of other new things in the company. Implenia is much bigger than my last employer and it just needs time to get to know all the procedures.
What is the advantage of working for a company as big as Implenia?
That despite my experience I’m always learning something new. For example, in dialogue with colleagues, including international colleagues. At the last Civil Engineering Division Excellence Day there were attendees from Norway, Sweden, Austria, France and Germany, and the programme was in English.
That was really new territory for me, a challenge.
I expect large and complex projects at Implenia. Together with a motivated and ambitious team, carrying out these sorts of projects is then also really fun and enjoyable.
