Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Metro Special Reports and Interviews
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Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Metro Special Reports and Interviews

RAFAEL HUERGA
Project Construction Manager, FCC


RAFAEL HUERGA
Project Construction Manager, FCC



12 MARCH 2018: Rafael Huerga is a wise and experienced hand on major transport infrastructure projects. In a 14-year career with Spanish contracting giant FCC, the lead entity in FAST Consortium, he has managed the construction of major design-build railway projects in Europe. His CV is notable for the award-winning New Europe Bridge stretching 2km over the Danube River between Romania and Bulgaria.

In 2015, Huerga relocated to Riyadh as construction manager for Metro Line 6, overseeing the design, construction and commissioning of 21km of line and managing a team of more than 50 nationalities where his technical, negotiation and collaboration skills are put to the test every day.

“FCC has experience on metros around the world,” he says. “But metro systems typically develop in tandem with urban and population growth. In Riyadh, we were confronted with the unprecedented challenge of building the system in one go - in our case selecting the team members, and surrounding ourselves with people who could get the job done. It has been a great opportunity for FCC.”

For Huerga, being a construction manager means overcoming the array of challenges which inevitably and consistently facing his team, not to mention taking responsibility for the approximately 9,000 workers which have at various stages been on site. Line 6 is notable for its engineering complexity: 16km of viaducts with different typologies (precast segments, balance cantilever, cast in place and precast beams), 3.5km of tunnels with different methodologies and a 1.5km at-grade section. In 2017, Huerga was also appointed construction manager for track works and systems (for CJV, TJV and TSY) across the whole of Package 3 (Lines 4, 5 and 6).

“My job is about organising teams, forecasting what the teams need to do in the medium- to long-term, define milestones clearly for the teams, and keep the various cultures and languages motivated and supported.

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