Kate Leone is using her position as a communications engineer on Transport for NSW’s M6 Stage 1 project in Sydney to showcase the wide variety of career paths that construction offers
A communications engineer at CIMIC Group’s UGL, Kate Leone was recognised as the 2024 Rising Star of the Year at the Women in Industry Awards last year for her project work and involvement in encouraging more young women into engineering.
Playing a key role in the design and implementation of communications systems in the new road tunnel, Leone has been using her position to mentor young women entering the industry and do her part in destroying the myth that engineering isn’t for girls.
The new M6 Stage 1 tunnel is being delivered by CPB Contractors and UGL in a joint venture with Ghella. As it takes shape around her, Leone spoke with Earthmovers & Excavators magazine about the thrill of participating on such a huge project and the unexpectedly creative side of being a communications engineer.
Rise to the challenge
Leone’s work began on the M6 Stage 1 project as a graduate engineer with UGL during the design stage of the twin 4km-long tunnels that will link President Avenue at Kogarah to the M8 at Arncliffe.
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A couple of years down the line and with construction now underway, her role of communications engineer involves designing and installing the emergency phone package, a GNSS network and the public broadcast system for the tunnels.
“I’m involved in the technical design, the writing of the technical specifications, coordinating with drafters to make the design package drawings, and looking after coordinating with subcontractors,” Leone says of the variety of tasks she undertakes on the project.
“I went through the process of tendering for the subcontractors as well doing the technical comparison in order to select the suppliers for different systems.
“I’ve also recently picked up looking after the installation and construction works for all of the electrical devices in the tunnel, so things like communication devices, as well as lighting, CCTV cameras, variable message displays and so on.”
With the M6 Stage 1 being the first major construction project in her career, Leone says it’s been an exciting challenge to be involved in designing systems from scratch for this site.
“I think the biggest challenge has been the GNSS system,” she says.
“Currently in Australia there are no existing GPS systems in public road tunnels. Some of the tunnels have Bluetooth beacons that help you navigate if you’re using an application with Bluetooth navigation capability such as Waze, but that’s not real GPS navigation. So, it’s been really exciting to go through the process of coordinating with the supplier to design a system where there is no precedence set.”
Leone says it’s rewarding to be involved in such a large project and see years of decision making come together with so many different teams involved. It can also be nerve-wracking, she adds, because the stakes are high in such a complicated build.
“Every little decision you make has massive repercussions throughout a tunnel, because you have mobilised so many people at each separate stage. If you get something wrong and they’ve installed it and it has to be pulled out and redone, the implications of that are potentially significant.
“But it’s also satisfying to see it come together, because I’m part of something that is going to outlive me. I can envisage myself years down the track, driving my kids or grandkids through this tunnel and I can say: look, I built that, I installed that.
“I never thought I’d be a tunnel nerd, but it’s exciting to know how these things work and all of the resources that get put into a tunnel to make it functional for public use. It’s not just a big hole in the ground – there’s so much more that goes into it. And, even as a communications engineer, learning about all the civil requirements that go into creating the tunnel is fascinating.”
Not just maths
Going back to what first interested her in studying engineering, Leone says her creative drive first led her to consider becoming an architect before turning to mechanical engineering as a way of bringing together her interest in analytical problem solving and in construction design.
“After my first year of engineering, I learnt about this new thing called mechatronics, and it just lit up every nerdy light in my brain,” she says.
“So, I moved over to a major in mechanical and mechatronic engineering, and found that I really enjoyed being able to work on all sorts of embedded systems and get to learn not just about mechanical engineering concepts but also electrical and software systems. After working as a mechatronic engineer, the background in electrical then led me to becoming a communications engineer.”
Leone says that often the perception of engineering might be that it solely revolves around doing complex mathematics and being isolated from others, but this is far from her day-to-day experience of being a problem solver that needs to liaise between a dozen different teams to iron out any issues in the design and execution of a plan.
“There’s usually no one specific way of solving a problem in real world applications, so you have to be creative in your approach and think quickly on your feet,” she says.
“There’s a lot of trial and error in engineering and figuring it out, learning from your mistakes, as well as other people’s past mistakes. It’s not the stereotypical creativity that most people think of, but as I’m interfacing with so many people and so many different systems on this project, communicating design decisions and changes with clarity is a significant skill.”
Core to Leone’s approach to her work is human-centred design, which she says places the needs of the end user at the forefront of problem solving.
“Prior to COVID-19 I was doing work with companies such as Unbound Australia, where I would travel to Nepal and facilitate study tours for cross disciplinary university students to teach them about human-centred design and show them how to implement it in different situations,” she says.
“The first step of any human-centred design approach is the empathy phase – taking the time to understand what the problem is and what people actually want, and getting down to root causes, so that you’re not just putting a band aid on the problem.”
Asked how this is influencing her design decisions on M6 Stage 1, Leone says she puts herself in the shoes of the installation team to understand any difficulties they might run into and how they can be mitigated.
“In the design of things like brackets and mounting plates, I’m always thinking about how the installation team will put them in place. So, often they’ll be on an elevated work platform with their hands above their head.
“In that kind of situation I always make sure that I’m designing something in a way that makes their job easier. I go through the process of installation with them, working back and forth, to improve designs so that not only is it easy to manufacture, but also easy to install.”
Improving diversity
Leone says it’s still unusual to see women in telecommunications and that more work needs to be done to encourage more women to view engineering as a potential career path.
The Rising Star Award acknowledges the work she has put in to service this goal, with her participating in diversity committees and at career events aimed at school leavers to show young women that engineering can be a fulfilling path.
“When I was in the graduate program at UGL I was the diversity and inclusion lead for the CIMIC graduate committee,” Leone explains.
“Although I was involved in school outreach throughout my engineering degree, the committee was a good entry point into this space at a higher level. There were quite a lot of women and diverse voices on that committee, and it was a great opportunity to be able to learn from them.
“It’s been exciting to see progression and go from running social events for graduates to influencing change at the corporate level. I see it as being a way to make the industry better for everyone involved.
“Being a young female, who looks a bit younger than I am, being in the tunnel and telling groups of largely men what to do, and trying to come off as confident, has been a personal challenge. But you don’t have to be a stereotypical blue-collar bloke to fit in. There are so many different personalities who work in the industry, and types of roles that exist.
“It’s been really good to see the excitement on some of the younger girls’ faces and be able to actually be a mentor for some of them as well; helping them go through the process of finishing university and finding jobs.”
Leone says that changes within the industry, particularly around increased flexibility, would be a significant benefit for both men and women, and would encourage more women to stay in construction in the longer-term.
“There’s a lot of research around how flexibility in work actually opens up accessibility for women and other minorities to be able to stay in the industry,” she says.
“Allowing people to come in late or leave early so they can do the school run for example, and offering that opportunity to men as well, is one way of making construction a more attractive and equitable workplace.
Next steps
With construction of M6 Stage 1 underway, Leone says it is providing her with the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of the complex design decisions that take place, with the aim of becoming a project manager down the line.
“I’d love to eventually get to the director level on major construction projects,” she says.
“I think that would be quite a fun challenge.
“Alongside my work I’m also on quite a few committees and I’ve sat on a few boards. I really enjoy that sort of work, so I’d love to be able to grow more in that space as well. There are very few female voices at the industry board level – I think it’s important to ensure that we have diverse thoughts at the higher levels, not just at the lower levels.
“When you get into business strategy and project strategy, it’s important to have lots of different opinions and lived experience influencing the strategic decisions that companies make,” she says.