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President of the Institute of Highway Engineers (IHE), Katharine Kelly, speaks to Dominic Browne about her modern engineering journey

Katharine Kelly may not admit it, she may not even be aware of it, but she is a hero. OK, perhaps not in the usual sense; she didn’t storm the beaches at Normandy. But she is a bonafide example of someone who has completed what is known to all film lovers, storytellers and geeks the world over as ‘the hero’s journey’.

Cue credits.
Act One: Departure

In which our hero leaves the ordinary world after hearing the call to adventure and discovers her powers.

When she was young, Ms Kelly had no idea where life would take her. She lacked confidence and was half-advised against her true path: ‘When I was at school, I was good at maths and physics and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Civil engineering came up and the careers adviser said: “Oh, do you know you will have to wear a hard hat?” That was her advice to me as a potential civil engineering graduate.’ (We can confirm Ms Kelly did have to wear one but that was 15 years ago.)

She completed her civil engineering degree and then, still searching for some direction, she took a year out and ‘ended up in Sri Lanka’.

‘One of my lecturers at university knew a school [St Thomas School Mount Lavinia] out there. I packed a bag and flew out on New Year’s Day. I literally knew nothing about what I was letting myself into. I ended up teaching English and music instead of maths and physics. It was totally not what was planned, but I had the best time, met some of the best people, and it certainly taught me resilience.’

On returning to the UK, with newfound confidence, Ms Kelly found a graduate engineering job in Glasgow with JMP Consultants Ltd, now part of the SYSTRA Group.

‘I started off in a bridges department and I hated it, so after six months they tried me on highways and that was it.’

What made the difference? ‘Bridge work was all calculations. It was plugging numbers into formulas and I suppose highways felt more creative. I started off by planning a cycle route through some woodland areas and I felt that, although it was a technical design, I could bring that other part of my brain into it a little bit more.

‘I think that is increasingly important. Given we don’t have much space to play with in the UK and the increasing focus on adapting and maintaining existing infrastructure, we’re forced to look for more creative ways to solve problems. ‘It’s not going to be an off-the-shelf solution or thinking in straight lines anymore.’

She reveals that one of her favourite parts of the job is traffic signs because they combine her two key strengths.

‘I love my traffic signs. They combine logic – somebody’s going from A to B, how do we direct them and what’s the flow of traffic? – with the  creative: I’m going to make a nice map and advanced direction signs; does it look good on paper; how do I come up with the best space-saving design with the least amount of blank space? It sounds really geeky, but I get frustrated because I’m now an associate technical director, so I’m not allowed to actually design the signs.’

Act Two: Initiation

In which our hero falls in love and faces trials and adversaries.

In 2005, Ms Kelly joined Halcrow for what was to be perhaps the most formative part of her career. This is also where she met her loving husband, Andy. We will gloss over the love interest sub-plot if you don’t mind. Suffice it to say they lived happily ever after and have two beautiful daughters, Isobel and Marion. But if you are hopelessly romantic and want to imagine their courtship, picture the kind of will-they-won’t-they passionate verbal sparring that only a highway engineer and a transport planner could have.

‘He is very much “let’s convert rural space to bus lanes and cycle lanes” and I’m more old school. I’m like: “Why don’t they just draw parking bays on the road and write our house number on them”.

‘And he’s like: “But if they move the parking off the main road out there, then more people can get the buses and you won’t need your car”.’

…Let’s move on shall we?

Having married in 2008, by March that year the pair set off on a new adventure.

‘We said to my boss that we wanted to travel and can you find an overseas office that will take us. I can’t think of another job that would allow a graduate of only two or three years’ experience to go to the boss and say that but Halcrow bent over backwards and they found us a couple of spots in their Abu Dhabi office.’

What was it like? ‘Mind blown. Back in 2009, Abu Dhabi hosted its first Formula One race. We were part of the project team building that racetrack and all the infrastructure needed for it to happen by race day.

‘They sliced a bit off the mainland in Abu Dhabi and created a manmade island called Yas Island. They had this massive 200-metre wide dredging operation to create a strip of water between this new manmade island and the mainland. It had to be wide enough for the sheikh’s yacht to sail through.

‘It was great for my career because it was a really fast-paced exciting project and they threw me in the deep end.’

These trials helped transform Ms Kelly ‘from being quite shy, scared to speak in a meeting’ to the kind of person who could handle a (mini) showdown.

‘It must have been one of the last meetings before we left: there were 30 of us sitting around the table – clients, project managers, architects and  everything. I was pregnant and out here by this stage. The client said: “Oh, we need Halcrow to do this and that and the other.” And I said: “Halcrow is not going to be doing that.” And the client said: “Oh, look at little Miss Kelly, look out.”

‘He had watched me grow over 16 or 17 months and said: “You’ve come such a long way”. I felt that too but for the client to recognise it was really nice. And everything was finished on time for November 2009.’

You might think everything would be smooth sailing for our hero after that, but in such a journey the hardest struggle is always just before the finale.

Act Three: The Return

In which our hero faces her greatest conflict, which could be life or death (for her engineering career) and takes the road back, transformed and triumphant.

When asked about whether the modern engineer has a ‘personality type’, Ms Kelly makes an interesting observation: ‘This is definitely my key struggle since Covid. Back in 2012, I set up an apprenticeship scheme. The first cohort was very much your “engineer type” – maths and science-focused, perhaps a little socially awkward.

‘We sat them next to a senior CAD technician and they learned the traditional way by observation, osmosis and saying “Can you show me how to do that?.” Covid took all that away. So now, when I’m recruiting or interviewing for apprentices or graduates, I find that I’m looking for very different skills.

‘Maths is important but I need somebody who can be proactive, even in remote working, and feel confident to phone or message and say: “I’m a bit stuck, can you call me for a chat”.’

You might wonder what this has to do with our hero’s journey but bear it in mind.

Ms Kelly returned from Abu Dhabi and after having her first child took a year off work. When she went back to the office she was working three days a week. Flexible working is much more common now but 15 years ago it was very novel.

‘Working only three days, they didn’t know what to do with me and whether they could put me on projects or not. It’s not their fault. I was the first person to do this really. Things have changed but I lived through that change. I was really miserable for a long time and wanted to quit engineering altogether. I ended up bizarrely working in a cake shop two days a week.’

It may seem strange to have your lowest moment in a cake shop but that’s the nature of adventures – you have to be prepared for anything. It was here that Ms Kelly faced a crossroads.

‘The owner asked if I would manage another shop in the chain and it forced things to a head and I asked myself: ‘Do I want to do engineering or do I want to go and run a cake shop?’

Luckily, the sweet allure of cakes was not enough to tempt her and Ms Kelly returned to engineering four days a week: ‘My career picked up and I was easier to deploy on a project.’

The rest is history. Halcrow became CH2M and Ms Kelly went from strength to strength. She was the lead designer for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow before moving to Transport Scotland in 2020, where she worked in both the procurement and the major projects teams, and managed graduates. In 2022, she became associate technical
director at Arcadis.

There is of course a final twist to the story. After putting off professional registration – ‘I used the excuse of having young children’ – by 2017 she finally started. It was at her professional review that, now past president Martin Polland suggested she might get more involved with the IHE. As Ms Kelly remarked in her presidential acceptance speech, she was in no position to say no.

Mr Polland became something of a later career mentor/cheerleader for Ms Kelly (technically he should have appeared in Act One but better late than never, Martin).

‘Martin has always looked out for me. He has always said: “You can do that.” And he never doubted my ability, and I really value that.’ Having served as junior and senior vice president, Ms Kelly took over the presidency in 2004. Only the second woman elected to the role in the IHE’s 60-year history, she will serve until next year. A hero’s journey doesn’t teach you how to solve a specific problem; it teaches you how to solve problems in general: have dreams, work hard, take chances, believe in yourself and stay true to your path.

And that is exactly what Ms Kelly has done. From megaprojects to parking issues at her children’s school, she solves problems all around her. She is a true inspiration not just to the sector, but to everyone with dreams that they hope will one day come true.

Roll credits.
Post credits scene

These interviews always end with the question: ‘Can you tell us something about yourself that not many people know?’ Ms Kelly revealed that she is a big fan of the now twice-cancelled soap opera neighbours.

As they say, never meet your heroes.

Article courtesy of Dom Browne, Highways Magazine