Faces of the CRL - Josh Ramos

In this section “Faces of the CRL” we talk to some of City Rail Link’s best and brightest. This month we turn the spotlight on Josh Ramos, who was a part of the latest Summer Internship Programme. We found out how he spent his summer working on the country’s largest infrastructure project.

Name: Josh Ramos

Suburb: Half Moon Bay

What are you studying at university? Bachelor of Engineering (Honours): Civil Engineering

What part of the project were you working on during your internship?

I was fortunate enough to work with the Quality and Construction Phase Services (CPS) teams, both supporting the constructors of the project. I was mainly based on the Mt Eden site and got to work closely with projects such as the trough, civil tunnels, redevelopment of Mt Eden Station and the newly commissioned MC10 line – as part of the new section of the North Auckland Line.

From the quality side, I spent time working with Quality Engineers ensuring compliance of works were maintained and building up of Quality Record documents. My involvement with the CPS included conducting site inspections and ensuring that the civil works done on site were as per the Link Alliance specification, NZ standards, and the issued designs. I had my awesome and supportive Quality Manager as my mentor and my colleagues who were all able to help me ease my way into such an overwhelming project and industry.

Currently, I am leaning towards the designer side of the industry, and this internship was an important step for me as a potential future designer as it exposed me to the constructability issues we often have when executing works as per the idealistic design space. Closely observing these issues out on-site and being able to get input from the Design to Constructor interface (the CPS) will hopefully aid me with reducing these problems once I get my place in the design offices.

What was one of your favourite moments during your internship?

I primarily enjoyed being able to correlate engineering principles learnt from university to what was being done on the project. Going out onto site, reading up on quality documentations, methodologies, design reports and drawings actively allowed me to reinforce my learnt knowledge from university and further expand from it. Seeing the progression of the sites day by day was also an amazing highlight.

What is your dream job?

Growing up, I had three dream job options lined up: Doctor, Architect and Engineer. I related more with engineering and eventually pursued Civil Engineering because of my fascination with structures – especially bridges.

What are your hobbies outside of work?

I like to draw when I feel the need to relax, I play football when I crave competition, but the hobby that tops it all - is playing video games.

What are you most excited for when the CRL is complete?

Learning about the CRL project, I understood that the primary goal was to extend Auckland’s transport network and its capacity and allow it to be more accessible to Aucklanders. From my interpretations, improving accessibility and capacity will positively change people’s perception of public transport and potentially entice more Aucklanders to use it much more often. This has the potential to steer our city away from our reliability towards cars and alleviate our horrendous traffic congestions, vehicle crashes and vehicle emissions. When the CRL is complete; firstly, I’d be excited for the public to see and use the infrastructures that I had been involved with, secondly, I’m excited to see the improvements it will make to the lives of Aucklanders.