When Pranaya Shrestha’s father immigrated to the United States from Nepal in 1976, he sacrificed a prestigious government position and worked seven days a week operating a grocery store in Minnesota.
Her two sons and a daughter “worked hard to make sure her sacrifice didn’t go to waste,” says Shrestha, HNTB’s vice president. “My sister went to medical school and my brother is a chemical engineer. My dad’s grandkids are graduating from college.”
Shrestha graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and entered the world of transportation “by luck,” he says. After consulting for a rail project in Portland, Oregon, he began working for the Denver Regional Transportation District on a one-year contract that turned into 25 years, including work on its FasTracks program that since of 2004 has resulted in 25.1 miles of light rail. road and 53 miles of suburban road.
Shortly after retiring from RTD, he got a call in 2021 from Caltrain, which was struggling with delays to its $2.4 billion electrification project and a large claim from contractor Balfour Beatty. “Three days later I was on a plane” to Northern California, he says.
Caltrain hired Shrestha as interim program manager to get the project back on track. Unexpected underground conditions, the pandemic and a politically motivated three-month postponement of a $647 million federal grant in 2017 were factors that contributed to the missed deadlines.
Contract disputes with prime contractor Balfour Beatty and a new federal risk update report in 2021 estimated the project would need an additional $330 million, Caltrain said in June 2021. The project was identified as at risk by the Federal Transit Administration and Alta California. Speed Rail Authority, investor in electrification.
Shrestha put together a roadmap to address about 1,500 change orders and repair the contractor relationship. Under Shrestha’s leadership, agency and contractor management counterparts met regularly, with monthly phone calls, visits and weekly calls from the CEO. “It could be as simple as having coffee together.
“We both had to have a horse in the race to change the relationship,” he says. “I said, ‘You have risks, I have risks, let’s share them’. We sat down with Balfour Beatty for two days to understand the risks.”
The result was a joint $50 million shared risk pool that Balfour Beatty’s senior vice president of operations, Keith McCoy, called “ingenious” and a win-win. “As large and complex projects evolve, they often require a change in leadership style to facilitate more effective problem solving,” he says.
“Pranaya Shrestha’s extensive experience with major projects and her technical expertise were instrumental in fostering a more collaborative approach and a stronger partnership between Balfour Beatty and Caltrain,” McCoy continues. “This strategic change in leadership played a crucial role in turning the project around at a critical time, resulting in the team successfully delivering a sustainable and modernized rail system on time and within budget”.
Mark Clendennen, HNTB project manager, agrees. “Working with Pranaya over the past eight years, from Colorado to California, has been an incredible experience. Pranaya’s extensive knowledge of electrification projects is unmatched. He not only understands the technical aspects inside and out, but which also excels at bringing people together.”
“When I look back on my career,” says Shrestha, “if there are 100 engineers in a room, I would be average at best. I have been able to succeed because of what I learned from my parents: treat everyone with kindness, Respect and dignity. Draw a line when it comes to values. You can’t teach them to be nice.
