Hard hats and high heels break the mould
Beauty and brains encompasses Empangeni's new Rail Bridge Engineer
PHOTO: Duschanka Hitzeroth
A BLONDE, green-eyed beauty walks in to the room; tall, confident and wearing safety boots. A hard hat and safety reflective vest rests comfortably in her hand.
Laura Watt-Pringle is the Assistant Resident Engineer on site in Empangeni at the new Rail Grade Separation Bridge.
A Civil Engineer for Royal HaskonningDHV, an international Netherlands based consulting company, this vivacious 25-year-old’s main focus is structural engineering.
‘I’m accountable for the upgrading of KZN roads while on this project. When roads get re-tarred and so on, the design of the road changes. It is then my job to ensure that the curves are not too tight, and there is super elevation on the roads. I have to consider flooding, joining, and so on. It’s quite technical,’ she explained.
Based in Richards Bay until the end of August, Laura spends her spare time with a good book and some pizza.
‘I love my job; it is very interesting working on site. I take pride in my work so there is no room for half jobs. I’m still gaining work experience in this versatile field. On site, necessities have to be safety attire and loads of sun block,’ she said.
Born and raised in Pietermaritzburg, Laura grew up in Hilton, the middle child of three girls. A Stellenbosch University graduate of Civil Engineering, Laura claimed she has always loved Mathematics and Science.
‘I knew I wanted to go into something in that direction, but medicine wasn’t an option for me,’ she said.
Important to Laura is quality time spent with family, well deserved rest and relaxation, a good game of hockey and table tennis or some down time in front of the television. She admits she’s a sucker for chick flicks.
‘My mom teaches Maths and Biology, my dad is a Financial Adviser and my younger sister is a Business Economics Teacher, so she’ll be doing my tax returns,’ she chuckled.
‘In 10 years time, I hope to be settled down and also want to travel more. I want to some day travel to South America, Vietnam, Cambodia and Europe. I have been to South Korea, Thailand and Cyprus so far and I’m going to the UK next week for a 10-day holiday, so it should be fun,’ she said.
