Twenty-six years of control systems, from pump houses to motorways

Mandate

Bring tolling, tunnel and traffic control, operational-technology security, asset data and IT infrastructure under one accountable function, and renew obsolete control systems without compromising lane availability.

Outcomes

• Migrated four tunnels to a new control system by parallel running, at €34.2 million and with no full closure.
• Contained a 2022 ransomware attack to the business network and completed a €14.5 million segmentation programme in 2024.
• Converted the interior concession to free-flow tolling with a 120-day image deletion rule; unrecovered tolls 2.4% against a 3.0% plan.
• Built a register of 2,340 structures that narrowed the 2031 handback estimate to €104 million plus or minus €14 million.

Decisions in context

The CTO role was created in 2019 when Leonor Avelreira combined tolling, operational technology and IT infrastructure, which had reported to three different executives. My first year went less on new systems than on making the existing ones visible: an inventory of what we ran, who supported it and when that support would end. The inventory became the renewal plan the board approved in 2020, and it still frames our capital requests. Each of the cases on this site comes from this period and involved a choice that cost money or time in the short term: a slower tunnel migration, an extended network isolation, a forgone revenue line and a smaller asset-data programme than some directors wanted. I report quarterly to the audit and risk committee on operational-technology risk and present major technology capital to the concessions and investment committee. Since April 2021 I have also served as an Elvaran-nominated director of Arvelo Road Services, the joint venture that operates our second Polish concession.

Reason for the move

Current role.

Mandate

Extend responsibility from tolling and traffic systems to all operational technology, and create a reliable source of engineering asset data.

Outcomes

• Produced the first group-wide inventory of operational systems and their support end dates.
• Integrated the second Polish concession's tolling and traffic systems within 14 months of its 2018 acquisition.
• Brought pavement-survey data from three contractors into one format and one location-referencing system.

Decisions in context

This role moved me from the systems that collect revenue to the systems and data that keep the whole network running. I took on tunnel equipment, traffic management across all concessions and the engineering data used to plan maintenance, reporting to the chief operating officer. The acquisition of a second Polish concession in 2018 tested the remit early: its tolling and traffic systems came from different suppliers and had been documented to a lower standard than ours. We integrated them within fourteen months, partly by accepting that some local systems would run unchanged until their natural renewal. The more lasting work was less visible. We built the first inventory of every operational system with its supplier, version and end of support, and we brought pavement surveys into one format. Both exposed how much of our asset knowledge depended on individual memory. The case for combining operational technology, IT infrastructure and asset data under a single CTO grew out of that inventory.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief technology officer when the role was created in September 2019.

Mandate

Stabilise toll-lane and back-office systems and bring traffic-control engineering in-house after years of dependence on suppliers.

Outcomes

• Reduced toll-lane equipment faults per million transactions by 38% over three years.
• Brought support of the northern concession's tunnel and traffic control in-house with nine engineers.
• Replaced lane controllers on 210 toll lanes across the four concessions.

Decisions in context

I moved to Lisbon to join the owner I had once supplied. The appointment was a deliberate change of side: after nine years delivering tunnel systems, I wanted to be accountable for running them. My first task was the toll lanes, where equipment faults were frequent enough to affect both revenue and the queues at plazas. We replaced lane controllers on 210 lanes and changed the support contracts so that fault data came to us rather than staying with suppliers. Over three years, faults per million transactions fell by 38 per cent. I also built a nine-person team to support the northern concession's tunnel and traffic control, which until then had depended almost entirely on Kvarnfjord. That was an uncomfortable conversation with my former colleagues, and a necessary one. I learned Portuguese during these years and learned how the grantor's contract turns a lane closure into a cost. Those lessons shaped how I approached every later renewal.

Reason for the move

Remit widened to all operational technology and asset data in January 2017.

Mandate

Lead the engineering department responsible for tunnel control-system design, commissioning and long-term support.

Outcomes

• Delivered control systems for eleven tunnels across three countries.
• Made scenario-based fire testing with the emergency services a standard commissioning stage.
• Built the department's first long-term support team, which grew to 14 engineers.

Decisions in context

Leading the department gave me responsibility for every tunnel control system Kvarnfjord designed and commissioned in these four years, and for the support of those already in service. I reported to the managing director and led sixty-four engineers through four direct reports. The most important change I made was to treat fire scenarios as the centre of commissioning rather than its final step: we began writing scenario tests with the emergency services and running them before handover, not after. I also built a long-term support team, which made the department's income steadier and taught me how support contracts really work. That was the uncomfortable part. Much of our future revenue depended on owners being unable to maintain our systems without us, and I could see the cost of that to the people running the roads. When Elvaran offered me the chance to lead its tolling and traffic systems, I took it to test whether an owner could do better.

Reason for the move

Joined Elvaran to be accountable for long-lived control systems as their owner.

Mandate

Deliver tunnel ventilation, lighting and fire-detection control systems from design through commissioning.

Outcomes

• Led delivery of the control system for four tunnels on Elvaran's northern Portuguese concession between 2006 and 2008.
• Commissioned control systems for three Swedish road tunnels.
• Wrote the department's first control-narrative template, used on later projects.

Decisions in context

I joined Kvarnfjord to work on systems where control logic has direct consequences for life safety. As a project lead I managed teams of up to twelve engineers on individual contracts, without line reports, and was responsible for delivery against budgets of up to two hundred and forty million kronor. The defining project was the control system for four tunnels on a motorway in northern Portugal, owned by Elvaran, which I led from design to final acceptance between 2006 and 2008. It was my first long assignment abroad and my first experience of a concession owner's priorities: the client cared less about our elegant architecture than about how many nights its lanes would be closed. I also wrote a template for control narratives, plain-language descriptions of what each system should do in each scenario, because I had seen how quickly design intent was lost once commissioning ended. Twelve years later I would rely on that same kind of document to replace the system I had built.

Reason for the move

Promoted to head of the department in January 2010.

Mandate

Write, test and commission control logic for water-treatment and pumping systems.

Outcomes

• Commissioned supervisory control at six water and wastewater plants.
• Wrote alarm-rationalisation rules that roughly halved nuisance alarms at one treatment works.
• Took part in factory and site acceptance testing for eleven pumping-station upgrades.

Decisions in context

My first role after graduating in June 2000 was as a systems engineer with no direct reports and no budget, reporting to an engineering manager. I wrote and tested control logic for water-treatment plants and pumping stations, then took it to site for commissioning. The work taught me that a specification is never the whole truth about a process. Operators knew which valves stuck in winter and which alarms meant nothing, and a system that ignored their knowledge would be bypassed within weeks. At one treatment works I rewrote the alarm rules with the operators, roughly halving the alarms they had learned to ignore, and that experience of separating meaningful signals from noise has stayed with me. I took part in acceptance testing for eleven pumping-station upgrades and commissioned supervisory control at six plants. I left at the end of 2004 for tunnel systems, because I wanted to work where the consequences of control logic were more immediate.

Reason for the move

Moved to tunnel systems, where control logic carries direct life-safety consequences.