After becoming a transportation project leader in Southern California, John Rinard traveled the world, building projects in South Korea, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Philippines and Australia. After earning his civil engineering degree from the University of Utah in 1983, “I wanted to see the world and be challenged by something big,” says Rinard, now director of the U.S. Western Regional Transportation Program of AECOM.
But before that could happen, it was literally railroaded for seven years, by the Southern Pacific Railroad.
“A guy named Mike Baker called me and he was kind of pushy,” Rinard recalls. “He said, ‘We’re this big railroad,’ but I wasn’t interested. I said the only time I have is tomorrow at 6 in the morning. He said, ‘I’m having coffee at 5.’ So Rinard and his wife they drove in a blizzard 30 miles to the Ogden railroad depot. “The lights are on and Baker was there with a coffee. In two hours, he convinced me of the wonderful world of the railway.”
Rinard’s rail expertise informed the delivery of a new commuter rail link, Metrolink.
Photo courtesy of AECOM
Since then, he has applied this rail expertise to numerous rail and transit projects, including Metro’s Blue Line, the Alameda Corridor, Metrolink, and California High Speed Rail efforts in Southern California, in addition to projects around the world. “I knew it was lucky for me to work for a Class 1 railroad, where I learned the why behind their standards,” he says.
He also adopted railroad lingo and used it to describe his career: “I was a gandy dancer, the people who built railroads first. They followed the building. They built a line for miles, and when they got too far from home, they would go to another job and build another one.
Rinard is described by his colleagues as a problem solver and a promise keeper. “I’ve worked with John on several projects since 1991 when he was with Southern Pacific,” says Jacqueline Patterson, co-founder of Zephyr UAS/Rail. “When we met, he was SP’s representative for the Blue Line project. Then I found him at Metrolink and we were able to open in 1992 under his leadership. Then he ended up at TriRail in Florida. He called and said, ‘You’ve done good job Metrolink. Can you help us?’ We have a part of this work.
“So our paths have crossed several times. He wants to do projects. He finds a way. A lot of people were skeptical about the initial phases of Metrolink being done in two years. He pushed us with leadership and guidance to get- ho. He’s one of those people who, when he promises, will move heaven and earth to complete it.”
Rinard helped build the Blue Line that connected downtown Los Angeles to Long Beach via rail.
Photo courtesy of AECOM
After leaving SP, Rinard served as director of engineering and construction for the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, now Metrolink, to lead a $2.5 billion project to build a new transportation and freight system covering 550 miles.
“John has always been someone for whom ‘no’ is not an option,” says Rachel Vandenburg, who served as lead engineer on the effort. “Working with him during the Herculean effort to prepare the Metrolink rail system for revenue operations, I saw this first hand. His own passion for delivering helped the entire team, whether staff agency, consultants or contractors, to meet the challenge. And Metrolink carried its first passengers in October 1992, exactly as promised.”
“John has always been a person for whom ‘no’ is not an option.”
—Rachel Vandenburg, former principal engineer at Metrolink
Richard Stanger, former director of Metrolink, recalls another Herculean effort: getting the trains running again after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. “It happened on a Monday. We had 14,000 on the train that Wednesday,” he recalls. “John was the person in charge of starting up this line and stations in four days.
“He had an incredible amount of knowledge about railroad design and maintenance for someone so young,” adds Stanger. “His style is calm but strict: he knows what he’s doing and tells people what to do. But he also gave his field people a lot of latitude to make decisions on the spot.”
Rinard went on to stints at DMJM and Bechtel, managing rail projects around the world. While at DMJM, he played a key role in building the Alameda Corridor, a 10-mile-long, 30-foot-deep trench that speeds freight from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to rail lines of the interior (ENR). 5/29/00, p. 96) that helped strengthen Southern California’s position as a major Pacific shipping gateway.
“He served as the program manager for the preliminary engineering phase of the $2.4 billion project,” says Gill Hicks, who was the general manager. “I would often walk into his office unannounced, and he would usually greet me with, ‘How are we doing?’ This was not a sign of insecurity on his part, but a reflection of his top priority, which was to keep his client happy. He knew how important it was that the project stay on schedule and within budget. He understood that time was of the essence, as project funding opportunities, coalition building, and public acceptance typically depend on project preparation.His orientation was always to solve problems, motivate staff, and keep moving. That’s why we got along so well.”
Rinard has his own variation of the story. “[Hicks would] say, “How can I help?” and I would say the same, and we would make a deal”, he remembers. “I am a businessman at heart. On these big jobs, I always say if I need a report from some new engineer to see if my project has problems, I already have it.”
Rinard contributed his railway experience to the Alameda Corridor project.
Photo courtesy of AECOM
Returning to Cali
Rinard spent the first decade of the 2000s working with contractor Herzog on rail projects across the United States, including Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Denver.
Ray Holdsworth, who had recruited him for DMJM, tried to win him back, now at AECOM. “I had created a different kind of organization in DMJM a long time ago,” says Holdsworth. “I was looking for the best and the brightest I could find. It fit the bill perfectly.”
Holdsworth adds that Rinard’s personality required a “dotted line” outside the standard organizational chart. “I knew if we put him in a normal slot, he wouldn’t last long. John sees the big picture; he’s very decisive. He doesn’t tolerate organizational structure very well.”
Holdsworth cited an Army saying of two missions: transmit and receive. “John excels at conveying,” he says. “If one decision is wrong, just make another one tomorrow to correct it. It’s not necessarily tactful. If you know the personality, you can train the organization and the staff around it. Build a strong technical team around it , and he leads them. Management is one of his strong points.”
The Albereda Corridor is a key piece of the region’s economic power as a maritime gateway.
Photo courtesy of AECOM
Rinard led AECOM’s Libya office for two years, building a $65 billion housing and infrastructure program. The scope included 227 contracts, six regional offices and 300 people. This included complete infrastructure for 62 cities and over 120,000 new homes. He then spent two years in Australia, managing billions of dollars in mining projects. This included the $7 billion West Pilbara project, an iron ore operation that included 320km of rail, a new deepwater port and mine processing facility, mining camps and roads. “I love the mining industry,” says Rinard. “It’s very fun and challenging. They want innovation; they have a can-do attitude.”
He spent the 2010s with CH2M Hill and Parsons Corp. building megaprojects in the Middle East. “The Riyadh project was a 100-mile subway system built at once in the capital,” he says. “My share was $17 billion. I had 32 nationalities working for me and two very large design-build contracts with full scope, from design to vehicle procurement and commissioning.”
He then returned to the US to assist in high-speed rail efforts in California and Nevada before returning to AECOM as director of the transportation program. “I discovered that I’m half an inch deep and 10 miles wide in experience,” he quips. “A lesson learned: You have to have MPs. I love bringing in new people who want to be challenged. I look for those who are confident, who are not afraid to leave their jobs. Then I have to put them in another job.”
“I was looking for the best and the brightest I could find.”
—Ray Holdsworth, former vice president of AECOM, on hiring Rinard
His mentorship seems to have rubbed off on his children. One son works for Parsons, another son and a grandson for Kiewit, and a daughter is married to a Sundt employee, he says.
The need to mentor more talent in the sector is obvious. He currently supports AECOM with tender proposals for major projects. “There seems to be a shortage of experienced project managers and directors,” he says. “I work to put together great teams and maybe my name will be called again soon.”
For all his global experience, he says Southern California “offers some of the biggest and best civil and transit projects, an opportunity to be involved in a large, complex, very challenging delivery. It’s for those who want work hard and be challenged. Projects make careers for young engineers.”
Although he currently resides in Yorba Linda, Rinard spends his free time in his birthplace in southern Idaho near the Snake River on his 34-acre ranch. “We raise 14 cows, 20 calves and one big bull,” he says. “The place is 10 miles from the Oregon border. It was a dream of mine since my childhood, when my father wanted me to be an engineer.”
