INTERVIEW | MIKE MCCONNELL
and 20 sec theodolites as well. Happily, we junctioned OK into the power station surge chamber. “We were working under two bar
of compressed air, so we needed decompression. We worked seven-day weeks, and at weekends I would go down with the Sunday papers and after my shift would spend the two hours of decompression reading them cover to cover.” The other projects he worked on were
at the Heysham Nuclear Power station Turbine Hall, with an adjacent sheet piled cofferdam for the pumphouse, “and then I went down to London, still with Taylor Woodrow, for my design experience working on the Dubai Dry Dock”. It was also a significant stage in his
professional development, and following a mock interview, Mike achieved his MICE in 1975 and, after further years of engineering and growing leadership in the industry, then became FICE in 1995. “Later, I became an ICE Reviewer and member of the ICE Exemptions Recognition Panel and QUEST Sponsorship Panel. It was also good to learn from young graduates being interviewed, to keep up to date with latest techniques and projects. “At this stage, with my ‘passport’
Above: Mike takes a chopper to reach the foothills of Mt Cook, New Zealand
achieved for future experience, we came out of London to work near Sheffield with Henry Boot and later with British Aerospace, based in Warton, on runway upgrades for fighter aircraft in Cairo. “My wife and I soon realised that if
we were going to be close to contractor Head Offices – and earn enough to buy a London property – we would head off overseas for meaningful periods. “When I say close to head offices, I
don’t mean that I wanted to become a CEO or anything. Some people have aspirations of being project directors and company directors. I don’t think I ever had delusions of grandeur like that. The higher you rise in a company the less actual engineering you do. What I enjoyed was being at the coalface, so that is what I stuck to. You could say that I know my place in life and am very happy with it. “However, we needed to get abroad,
Above: Discussing feasibility proposals with the client for the Guangzhou metro project in China. 36 | August 2026
and Balfour Beatty International was advertising for positions on a hydroelectric plant on Java, in Indonesia. I was successful at the interview. We bought a house in Coulsdon in South London, which we let out when we were overseas, and off we went to Java, to a £350m project in JV with Skanska from Sweden.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
