Meet Mikkel Meldgaard Pedersen
“Infrastructure often has the largest volume within civil projects. We have a lot of interfaces and coordination with other disciplines, and to me that makes our work interesting, challenging and fun.”
Mikkel Meldgaard Pedersen, Head of Discipline, Transportation, Roads and Airports
When you stand in the middle of a three-kilometre-long and 60-metre-wide runway, you always get stunned by the sheer amount of asphalt. To most people, it might just look like a lot of pavement, some markings, lights and the terminal. But I see much more – the many functions it serves, all the diverse disciplines and participants that have been involved during the design, planning and construction.
I have worked on a variety of projects, but big infrastructure has been the theme throughout my career, and I have been fortunate to work on quite a few big airports in Scandinavia and other countries. What I really like about this work is the complexity and the many interfaces with other disciplines.
When designing elements at an airport, you need to consider the types of aircraft it will accommodate, the operators involved, the current capacity, the anticipated growth over the next 10 to 30 years and much more. This means keeping several perspectives in mind: the client, airport authorities, the airlines and the passengers. What you design must match all the needs of all the different stakeholders.
Check out these open positions, if you want to join Mikkel and become part of Transportation and Infrastructure:
"Infrastructure affects all of us every day. We all depend on good infrastructure solutions, and I think it's the most interesting engineering discipline."
Join Mikkel
Infrastructure often has the largest volume within civil projects. That means we have a lot of interfaces with other engineering disciplines. Working in a company like COWI, we are privileged to have experts in all areas. So even when we cooperate with other consultants on projects, I can get help and seek advice internally, if there is something I don’t know or need to check.
To me, infrastructure has always been the most interesting engineering discipline because it affects all of us every day. We all depend on good infrastructure solutions to be able to live our lives the way we want to. To succeed with my work as an infrastructure engineer, I have to talk to a lot of other people – customers, contractors, other consultants and, of course, specialists and engineers from other disciplines. That’s what makes my work, or rather our work, interesting, challenging and fun.
I joined COWI after graduating with a major in airports, and every day since has been constant development for me. Along the way, I have worked in three different countries, tested myself and my abilities and learned from the best experts in this discipline.
In my current role, I am responsible for a team of young and senior experts. People that are eager to learn, and people that are eager to share their knowledge. Of course, the young learn from the experienced, but the seniors also learn new methods and technologies. It creates a culture of learning, development and mutual respect.
COWI is a place where you can experience a world of opportunities, grow and develop. You can specialise in a particular field or work with project management or people management as a leader. The learning curve might sometimes be steep, but you will never be alone, and you will definitely not be bored.
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