Dr. Robin Sham leads the ArchTam Long Span Bridge Group and is based in Hong Kong. With a career that spans over three decades and several continents, he has worked on many of the world’s record-breaking cable-stayed and suspension bridge projects.

For his notable contributions to the civil engineering profession, he has been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, recognized by the UK’s Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) as an engineering superhero and Gold Medalist, and named by the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania as one of the greatest bridge engineers of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

Elements of his genius can be seen in his design of a 31-metre Guinness World Record-breaking suspension bridge made entirely of LEGO® bricks. The structure was the centerpiece of an ICE exhibition celebrating civil engineers who have created some of the world’s greatest bridges.

What inspired you to join the industry? Ever since my childhood, I have been fascinated by bridges. A yearning to create artifacts that are physical and tangible inspired me to become a civil engineer. I perceived bridges as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles and resolving conflicts, and as structures for connecting people and places. I was determined to realize the physical and emotional power of bridges to connect people and drive the growth and development of countries. My desire to create new types of bridges, spanning larger distances more efficiently than ever before led me to embark on a mission of fact finding and path finding to make myself a bridge engineer. The experience in my early pursuits was enriched when I delved into the research of artificial intelligence in bridge design. That gave me a glimpse of the creative thought processes in a designer’s mind, which was to shape my ensuing career.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. The civil engineering industry is constantly evolving and we now have access to technology that enables us to build structures in topographies and environments that were once unthinkable – places where waterways were ‘too wide to be crossed’, winds ‘too strong for construction’, soil-types ‘impossible to build on,’ and severe earthquakes would deter construction.

The achievements of the ArchTam Long Span Bridge Group are deep in history. We pioneered the creation of third generation suspension bridges to attain aerodynamic stability in typhoon winds at speeds in the realm of 100m/s (Tsing Lung Bridge); we spearheaded the sciences of construction engineering with the first attempt in history to construct cable-stayed bridges with main spans exceeding 1km (Sutong and Stonecutters Bridges) at a time when such a human endeavor was technologically uncharted; and we created seismic-resilient and scour-tolerant designs for disaster prevention and economic expansion (Second Penang and Padma Bridges). At present, our team is working on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America, which will become a strategic border crossing between the US and Canada; and on the 22km-long Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, the longest sea link in India, which will bring economic expansion and relieve traffic congestion for the region.

What is the favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? I am privileged to have worked on practically all of our long span bridge projects, which are some of the world’s longest and most magnificent. Our team relentlessly reimagines its designs and reinvents its strategies. My current favorite is a combination of two landmark projects forming a family of monumental bridges – the Cross Bay Link and the Southern Bridge, currently under construction in Hong Kong and expected to be completed in 2022.

The Cross Bay Link is a 1.8km-long sea link carrying a highway, a footpath, a cycle track, flower pots/planters and viewing platforms. When the cycle track comes off the sea link, it forms a 5km-long loop across the landscape and finally returning to the Bridge. The center piece of the Cross Bay Link is the Eternity Arch, a 400m-long orthotropic steel arch bridge. When viewed from the shores, the arch bridge is designed to appear as the mathematical symbol of infinity. It is all part of our design to deliver a sea link for multimodal transport and multipurpose leisure activities.

Our design for its pedestrian counterpart, the Southern Bridge, presents a single arch rib spanning diagonally above a 110m-main span curved deck girder. As the pedestrians walk through the curved bridge, they will be treated to gorgeous shifting views of the structure and the neighboring bridge. The project will regenerate a former refuse disposal ground and promote leisure activities and water sports. The erection of the Southern Bridge is expected in late 2021 – early 2022.

What career advice would you like to share? The key is teamwork — as personified in the Liverpool Football Club anthem, “You’ll never walk alone”.

A career in civil engineering offers the challenge of “directing the great resources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man,” as said by Thomas Tredgold. There is also, I find, a triumphant sense of accomplishment in delivering a project. What other career can offer this?

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Building Diverse Talent

To tackle the world’s most complex challenges, we attract, hire and develop talented people of all backgrounds, and ensure inclusivity and fairness in our sourcing, interview and hiring processes. Through our partnerships with nonprofit organizations and universities, we offer robust internships, graduate development programs and volunteer opportunities that help give underserved populations access to STEAM education.

Enriching Communities

Our Blueprint for a Better World platform reflects our responsibility to champion equity, diversity and inclusion in our communities through pro-bono work, volunteerism, philanthropy and strategic partnerships with global nonprofit organizations like Engineers Without Borders and Water for People. We deepen our engagement with communities through our commitment to supplier diversity, providing leadership to ensure that diverse-owned businesses are supported and successful.

Expanding Understanding

To help every employee feel valued and included, we’re fostering an inclusive workplace through community-building, training and family-friendly benefit policies. We conduct regular employee surveys and discussions to understand our employees’ experiences and provide a forum for deeper understanding and empathy. Our employee resource groups and networks create a sense of belonging and lead community outreach, and strategic mentorships promote ongoing dialogue and heightened awareness of ED&I issues and opportunities.

Thinking Without Limits

Promoting equity, diversity and inclusion can’t be done in a silo. By cultivating a workforce that more closely represents the clients and the communities we serve, we are able to better anticipate and respond to their needs. Further, we prioritize the social impact and benefits of equity, diversity and inclusion, factoring these considerations into every project we pursue and the innovative solutions we deliver.

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As we extend our brand leadership in 2020 and beyond, we are excited to shine a brighter spotlight on our people, and the opportunity that’s unlocked through the infrastructure they create and the legacies they leave.

As the world’s premier infrastructure firm, we define this category in the broadest sense. We see infrastructure as the foundation of the world in which we live, work and play. And in the same way that we’ve broadened the view of infrastructure, we’re also elevating our vision. It’s bigger than us.

Our vision reflects our boldest aspirations for a better world — a world where infrastructure creates opportunity for everyone.

Whether it’s improving your commute, keeping the lights on, providing access to clean water or transforming skylines, we believe infrastructure powers possibilities to help people and communities thrive. See how our vision is coming to life.

Our brand is so much more than a logo. Built from the inside out, it is who we are and what we stand for – the sum total of the hearts and minds of our talented people. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing stories of inspiration and impact from our employees, clients and communities worldwide.

Follow us and share your story or join us to help shape the future for generations to come.

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Public-private partnerships (P3s) create opportunities for innovation and cost savings across the lifecycle of a project. With renewed support for infrastructure development from the incoming administration, the use of P3s in the U.S. is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. On February 7, 2017, Congress reintroduced the Public Buildings Renewal Act (H.R. 960/S. 326), which would open the U.S. buildings market to P3 by creating a tax-exempt bond that state and local governments can pair with private financing to fund public building projects, such as schools and hospitals. I’ll be speaking at an Infrastructure Week briefing on the bill Friday May 18.

I have been involved in advancing P3 projects over the past 12 years and have seen the P3 idea transform from a nascent, controversial concept to a widely accepted, proven U.S. model. No longer do we need to point to Canada and the United Kingdom for examples, we have signature projects in the U.S. across all sectors. Nearly every governor, mayor, state transportation department and transportation agency is considering how to leverage P3s to advance their most tricky, sticky, complicated and overdue projects. Since 2008, P3s have catalyzed more than $15 billion in U.S. projects while delivering at least $5 billion in cost savings to taxpayers (according to InfraAmericas). Successful projects that otherwise would never have moved forward, such as the Port of Miami Tunnel, were made possible due to the P3 approach.

Already, P3 projects of all types are helping project owners gain much needed confidence as they look to develop new assets and improve existing ones, as the P3 approach inherently results in faster project delivery and improved long-term performance.

For example, the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse (pictured above) is the first civic building in the U.S. delivered through an availability-payment-based public-private partnership. Under this agreement, Long Beach Judicial Partners financed, designed and built the project and will operate and maintain it for a period of 35 years. The owner, the California Judicial Council’s Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), pays for the building incrementally (though they owned it upon land acquisition).

The key to the availability-payment structure is that if the building is unavailable due to maintenance issues for any significant period of time, the AOC can deduct money from their payments. As the project designer, ArchTam consequently prioritized durability along with a more convenient and less stressful experience for those on all sides of the justice system, an appropriate response to the varying heights of adjacent buildings, civic architecture that expresses the court’s purpose, and the provision of public space. The project was completed in August 2013 under budget and 11 days ahead of schedule.

As a participant in more than 650 P3 projects around the world, ArchTam is positioned to help address the nation’s pent-up demand for infrastructure project delivery. Our integrated design, build, operate and maintain capabilities are backed by a finance entity, ArchTam Capital, allowing us to provide assurance, certainty and longevity to public partners.

Our team recently received a Gold honor at the P3 Awards ceremony in the “Technical Advisor of the Year” category for helping to advance P3s in North America. Having served as a trusted advisor to government owners on the largest P3 projects in the U.S. — the LaGuardia Central Terminal Building program and the University of California Merced Campus expansion project — as well as having delivered projects on the private side brings a tremendous reservoir of experience and unique dual public and private perspective.

Accepting the Gold honor in the “Technical Advisor of the Year” category on behalf of ArchTam were (from left) Tom Kness, Samara Barend, Kent Dussom, Peter Morris, David Weeks and Jim Stankiewicz.

With many transformational P3 projects in development, we are working to create and unlock new opportunities for our clients while increasing the return on investment not only for our clients but also the taxpaying public.

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An early fascination with building things led to my interest in urban water systems and my passion for civil infrastructure. Starting as an entry level engineer, I found my strength as a project manager and had the fortune of leading the construction phase of the Wards Island Biological Nitrogen Removal demonstration projects in New York City. Not only did these projects achieve a consent order milestone for our client, they also prevent 10,000 pounds of nitrogen from being discharged into the city’s East River every day, resulting in cleaner waters.

Gabriel Giles (center left) and Paul Storella (center right) represent ArchTam at the 2011 ACEC National Engineering Excellence Awards for the Wards Island Wastewater Treatment Plant BNR project.

My inspiration comes from delivering projects in the water sector that sustainably enable and support our communities and economies. Some examples of our current projects include:

• The Croton Water Filtration Plant, which treats drinking water from the oldest of the city’s three water supplies;
• The NYC Wastewater Resiliency Plan, which is increasing wastewater infrastructure resilience to better protect surrounding waters and public health;
• The New Meadowlands Rebuild by Design project focused on implementing flood-risk mitigation measures for the Meadowlands District in New Jersey; and
• The Combined Sewer Overflows Long Term Control Program, which evaluates options for combined sewer overflows to improve water quality for city residents.

These projects provide solutions for our clients as well as benefits that extend to millions of people every day. Our challenge now is that there are many more projects needed that require political commitment and financial investment. Particularly for U.S. water infrastructure, much of which was built more than 50 years ago and is in need of repair and/or replacement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has projected that we will need more than $655 billion in water infrastructure development over the next 20 years to keep pace with the anticipated needs.¹

Wards Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, the second largest wastewater plant in NYC with a treatment capacity of 275 million gallons per day.

We must raise public awareness to meet the challenge of reinvesting in our infrastructure. Too often we take our built environment for granted, only realizing its value when an antiquated pipe breaks and our water supply is interrupted, or polluted waters affect public health and the environment. Those of us in the civil infrastructure discipline must promote the importance of the work we do by sharing it with our colleagues, friends and families — to get the conversation started and to continue our momentum!

Sources:

1. EPA Blog, July 2016: The Time to Invest in America’s Water Infrastructure is Now

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Part of the role of a finance director is to ask the difficult questions around our financial performance.  Sometimes I have to insert myself into monthly project reviews to get a better understanding of the financial challenges projects face and help project managers overcome them. While it can be difficult jumping into a project once work has already begun, it’s a regular and necessary part of business. As an outsider coming in, it takes being bold to dive into the process, get caught up to speed quickly and foster a shared understanding for better-informed decisions.

What motivates you to #BeBoldForChange?

Once I set a goal for myself, I’m determined to deliver it. I think this comes from my upbringing — in our family, our parents encouraged us to never give up and told us we could achieve anything we set our minds to.

Rebecca (left) with Marc Barone, managing director of ArchTam’s U.K. Water business, on a site visit to the Deephams Wastewater Treatment Plant in Edmonton, U.K

Is there a person whose bold actions you admire and try to emulate?

I have a mentor and friend who is a real champion for change — she asks me all of the difficult questions I avoid asking myself and won’t let me get away without answering them! She encourages me to set specific actions and goals and then holds me accountable for delivering against them. I try to emulate this with the people I mentor. Whilst these conversations are often challenging and uncomfortable, they always crystallise the actions which result in progressing something to the next level.

How can others learn from your own experience?

It’s important for each of us to have a sense of belief and confidence in our own abilities. I think one of the best things we can do for ourselves is to remove any of the limits we unconsciously set for ourselves before we tackle any societal or organizational barriers. If we remove our own limitations, then we can really start to fulfill our true potential, overcome obstacles and accomplish things we perhaps never dreamed were possible.

I often come back to the saying: “If not now, when?” — a quote from the teachings of Baptiste yoga! In other words, don’t sit and wait to be ready; take the leap now with confidence that you are ready in this moment. Many of my bold moments have come about just after being appointed to a new role. At those times, when I thought, “I can’t do this; this is beyond my capability,” I’ve found the strength from within to challenge that belief and actively contribute and voice my opinion, reminding myself that I have a valuable contribution to make.

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Looking back at my career, though I wasn’t conscious of it at the time, I made bold decisions for change that contributed to my success in an inclusive working world. While these decisions were sometimes stressful and risky, they formed the foundation of my career and of the woman, wife and mother I have become.

A leap into the pit
During my summers in college, I chose to work in an open-pit copper mine. Without realizing it, I put myself in an all-male workforce and a completely foreign work environment, without the comfort of familiar co-workers.

At an early age, this job taught me to succeed by building relationships, trusting my co-workers, speaking my mind and collaborating with others — people with different backgrounds and points of view — to solve a common problem.

Making the move to the “Big Apple”
As a young interior design graduate of the University of Arizona, I chose to leave Arizona and pursue a career in New York City during one of the worst financial recessions of the 1980s. I was oblivious to the fact that NYC design firms were releasing hundreds of designers and that my resume from an “unknown design school” in Arizona would not help me secure employment.

This bold move taught me to not apologize for “who I might be” or “where I came from,” but to sell myself, my skills and the value of that combination as benefit to a design firm. Each interview I encountered — rarely with a woman — taught me how to present myself confidently, be proud of the work in my portfolio and focus on the ways my skillset would help meet the needs of a potential employer.

Changing careers and minds
Mid-career, I opted to leave the comfort of a long-term career in architecture to work for a construction company that was in the early stages of becoming a design-led, design-build firm. Without fully realizing it, I put myself in a position where I had to use my leadership skills with a diverse set of co-workers, not all of whom were on board with the changes happening at the firm, to drive results toward the new strategy.

This bold move taught me to listen — really listen to others’ points of view — and to use the diversity of gender, ideas and approaches to create new and unique solutions that exceeded clients’ expectations.

I’d like to use my bold moments as examples for young women: to mentor them to follow their dreams of success, whatever that looks like, and not be afraid to take measured risk, even if it’s uncomfortable. In an inclusive work environment, we can use each other’s differences to our competitive advantage. As our clients’ organizations also become more diverse and inclusive, it’s my hope that everyone’s bold moments can be used to harness the power of diversity and inclusion to foster innovation.

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I was raised in Zimbabwe by a single mother who has always been an inspiring example to me and my siblings of what it means to #BeBoldforChange. In a society where women typically worked in non-technical roles, my mother was one of the few women who chose a career in information and communications technology and computer science in the 1980s. Growing up, we watched her start as a secretary and advance to the executive level of her company. She defied all odds in her profession, while raising three children in the process.

I never quite realised the impact my mother’s actions had on me until I was much older — she’s the reason my approach in life is to be brave and bold, and to welcome change. For me, to #BeBoldforChange means to “take the bull by the horns” and run with whatever life throws my way. I make the best of every situation and, as they say, “do it afraid.”

I want to impact the world by creating more opportunities for young women — particularly those from minority backgrounds who overcome social, economic and cultural barriers — to hold leadership roles. I believe that true impact comes from seeing tangible examples of women (like my mother) who were able to break the glass ceiling and use their positions of influence, not only as a voice for women in the boardroom, but to open the door for other women to follow in their footsteps.

As women, I believe we can embrace all things that embody femininity while being bold in who we are and proud of the value we bring to our own spheres of influence and society as a whole.

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After becoming a mother, I kept pushing out the date I planned to return to work, knowing that I wanted to return, but wasn’t quite ready. My boss was very understanding — he had previously lost employees who came back too quickly and wanted to make sure the timing was good for both of us. I was able to work from home occasionally, and when we finally placed my daughter into a daycare down the street from my office, I felt ready to return.

Work was great. I was again part of a team, going to meetings and working on influential projects. However, the necessary “mom” things, such as taking pumping breaks, became the low point of my days. I reached out to other working moms and found their experiences were similar, and we agreed we needed better facilities for nursing mothers.

My “bold moment” was when I spoke to my local office management to suggest improvements for our lactation room while simultaneously researching standards and guidelines to help inform those improvements. There wasn’t a lot available at the time, so after we achieved our goal of better facilities in our own office, I took my cause further to help ensure there was a model all ArchTam offices could follow. I wanted to see that moms who were very happy and willing to work had a place that felt comfortable and respectful of both our roles, as professionals and as mothers.

Kristi and her daughter, Keira, in September 2015.

I made connections with the Diversity and Inclusion (D+I) group at ArchTam, which helped lead the effort to add lactation room guidelines into our overall Real Estate plan. The guidelines document I developed was reviewed by several different company functions — including Real Estate, Legal, Benefits, Human Resources, D+I, and others — and I was thrilled when the announcement came last spring that the guidelines were incorporated into the new Employee Handbook! The new guidelines include room design standards, from room privacy and location, to counter spaces and storage areas.

Meanwhile, a few of the mothers in my office started emailing back and forth on a regular basis. We decided to start a group on Chatter (an internal social network for ArchTam employees) to make it easier to share ideas on how to navigate working motherhood, and “AEMOMS” was formed!

The group started out local in Arlington, Virginia, and we slowly added moms from other offices until we grew so big we decided to make it an open group. We now have close to 400 mothers in our group from all across the world! We hold monthly support calls where moms can talk through work-life challenges as well as keep each other informed of ArchTam benefits that are especially helpful for mothers, including maternity leave, care.com and flexible work arrangements. I personally take advantage of the flexibility, working a part-time schedule so I can still have one week day to spend with my daughter.

I love that AEMOMS provides support and encouragement for women who want to stay in the workforce. I also enjoy helping people; the positive feedback and many “thank yous” I have received from my fellow moms are what drive me to continue to #BeBoldForChange.

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