From the bottom up - Darren Coleman

Bechtel's Darren Coleman reflects on a career delivering some of the UK's biggest railway infrastructure projects.

Leaving school, I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. However, my father and grandfather both worked in the rail industry, and, fortunately, my father persuaded me to take an apprenticeship with British Rail.

The birth of my son in 1995 started my drive to provide for my family. I gained my civil engineering degree in 1999 at the age of 27 and began my career in project management delivering railway infrastructure projects. The jobs have got progressively bigger.

I’ve worked on a number of successful projects, including the delivery of the Manchester Victoria station redevelopment programme, Proof House North and South Junction renewal, the West Coast A09 line-speed improvements and Crossrail On-Network Works.

Career highlights

While there have been many highlights, if pressed for just one, it would be the delivery of the West Coast A09 project, which opened my eyes to the complexity of working on operational railway projects. 

These line-speed improvements were critical to the West Coast programme. There was a very tight delivery schedule that, if not met, could have resulted in a major impact on the train timetable.

The A09 project spanned London to the Scottish border and was managed in Manchester. During the five-year programme, we delivered all of the line-speed upgrades on time. The commitment and camaraderie of the project team and supply chain were truly phenomenal.

Now, I’m the project director responsible for the £1.3bn Crossrail On-Network Works programme. The work includes overground infrastructure changes needed to accommodate the new electric-train services starting in May 2017 between London Paddington and Reading, as well as the new Crossrail services between Paddington and Reading, and Paddington and Heathrow Airport, both starting in May 2018.

Key works include the new platform layout at Paddington Station, a new train-depot access at Old Oak Common, Acton dive-under (an open-topped rail tunnel for separate freight and passenger operations at Acton Yard), and the Stockley flyover (rail infrastructure on a viaduct providing a flyover facility for services from Stockley to Heathrow Airport). In addition, we are working on new overhead line infrastructure from Hayes & Harlington to Maidenhead, a new train depot at Maidenhead and alterations to 13 stations.

Lessons learned

My role now allows me to do a bit of everything – safety, engineering, project management, commercial and project controls, and client and stakeholder management. Most of all, it allows me to work with a wide range of people from different cultures and backgrounds who are at differing stages of their careers. I want to continue to learn, be challenged and deliver change – but, most of all, I enjoy helping people to develop and realise their goals.

Joining Bechtel has had the greatest influence on my career and life. In 2006, when I joined the company as the area construction manager for the West Coast A09 project, Bechtel gave me the opportunity to work in a number of different disciplines and roles, each offering me a progressive learning opportunity.

Working there has also had a positive influence on my family. We have travelled, met a variety of people from different cultures and attended events that we would never have made the invite list for, had I not joined the company.

In terms of lessons learned, I would say the most important one is listening to and considering the other person’s perspective before answering. Also, do not underestimate the power of and need for leadership skills. Building teams requires significant time with ‒ and an understanding of ‒ those around you, including yourself.

Throughout my career, the support of my family, particularly my wife and son, has been a huge contributing factor. The people around me have also been important. I hate being called ‘lucky’ in my career, but I’ve been fortunate to have worked with a number of strong leaders, including project managers, who have shared their experience. It’s definitely the need to deal with the next challenge that gets me out of bed in the morning.

 Darren Coleman is project director at Bechtel for Crossrail On-Network Works.