Faces of the CRL - Meet Boots!
Delivering the country’s largest infrastructure project takes some seriously talented people, so 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 Andreas Schuemann, our newest Project Engineer who brings an incredible amount of experience to the project.
Name: Andreas Schuemann. Or if you're slightly more daring, Boots.
Suburb: Remuera
How long have you been working with the City Rail Link?
33 days
What is your role and what does your average day look like?
I'm one of the latest additions to the vast team of Project Engineers looking after the former C9 package (Britomart East and the CRL tie-in) which was incorporated by the C7 package.
As for my average day, the key word is "Remote" with a capital "R". Definitely, the strangest onboarding in my entire career, I have not spent one single day on the office yet and have only met my new colleagues on Teams (apart from those I met in my pre-lockdown interviews). It's all about WFH.
What are you working on right now?
At the moment, I feel like SpongeBob SquarePants absorbing Gigs of data each day getting my head around the complexity of Britomart East and how to turn it from a dead-end into a through station.
Tell us more about some of the roles you’ve worked in the past.
Since kicking off my career back in 2005 I worked on bridges (Gateway Duplication in BrisVegas and Queensferry Crossing in Edinburgh), highways (Transmission Gully and Maliakos-Kleidi in Greece), remediation sites (Newstead on the banks of Brisbane River), tunnels (CLEM7) and buildings in Germany. Of all projects, I have to admit, bridges have been the most fascinating ones (Sorry CRL. You might be able to change my mind though).
I think it's merely the fact that I turn into a kid in a candy store when seeing "The Project" I'm on growing and bridges, with their majestic aura, are the perfect example for this: As soon as the foundations are complete i.e. you're out of the ground they keep moving skywards right in front of you, in plain sight from miles and every vantage point. Tunnels, in comparison, seem to be of a rather shy nature and "hide" only showing off their portals.
Outside of work, how have you been keeping yourself busy during lockdown?
Having a 15-month-old boy (the first Kiwi in our family; mom is from the Big White and I was born in the land of bread and sausages) at home I should re-phrase the question to "What are your hobbies when not chasing the ankle biter, cooking 7-teeth suitable meals or just being Dad?"
I enjoy gardening and keeping the lawn weed-free and lush green (so Kiwi). Also hopping on my road bike for a ride around Tāmaki Makaurau or the Waitākere (I can highly recommend going up Mountain Rd to figure out your level of fitness) relaxes me as well as an interesting book (fiction or non-fiction, the latter on history or politics).
What are you most excited for when the CRL is complete?
First and foremost, that the confusion will be gone when travelling from the west towards Britomart and the train pulls into Newmarket and "reverses" out.
On top of that, seeing Auckland's new face around the stations to come. The designs are fantastic.
And last but not least, that I was involved in such an iconic project and that I "served" the community once again by adding value to everyone's daily life.