Len Johnson

Said the following about Robert Hodges:

“Robert Hodges has been the Director in charge of the Opus Bridge team in Wrexham, N Wales, for over 20 years. It has been under his guiding hand that the Rail Bridge Team has grown from strength to strength. The team provides inspections, assessments, and the design of rail under and over-bridges as well as other associated rail structures.

Robert has built Opus’ reputation in the Rail sector to position the company as a serious player. Under Robert’s leadership, our work in rail has grown from a small team based in a single office in Wrexham to a multi-skilled team working out of eight offices throughout the UK. He has also been instrumental in establishing close working relationships with the rest of the supply chain in the rail industry.

He is a great ambassador for Railway Engineering. Over the years, he has mentored and developed technical staff. He regularly devotes his spare time in furthering the development of our young people and in the coaching of our Engineers of tomorrow. He believes that learning from people with experience, is the most effective learning method. He always encourages our young engineers to ask questions and is most helpful in giving up his time to explain things.

He decided to pursue a career in engineering following a careers exhibition which visited his school where he picked up a civil engineering leaflet. He went on to study civil engineering at the University of Sheffield where he could also pursue his passion for walking and climbing. After graduating, he gained his experience working for contractors before joining a local authority and then Veryards in 1986 who were acquired by Opus in 2004. He has been with the company for nearly 30 years.

Robert’s passion for rail engineering is clearly evident, he often says that working in rail means that no two days are the same, there is always something different. He is an excellent problem solver and thoroughly enjoys the challenges which the Rail sector brings. An example if the Northern Electrification project in Salford, Robert led a team to design and detail three different bridge types in a very short timescale in order to meet possession date targets. His project highlights includes working on the A500 Basford-Hough –Shavington bypass, major engineering achievements for this project included; a 195 metre, five-span railway over-bridge, seven other over-bridges, moving 700,000 cubic metres of earth, and numerous culverts.

Network Rail are also happy to continue their working relationship with Robert, for the second time, he has been appointed to drive the Structures Assessment framework in their London North West territory.

Outside of work, Robert has been a dedicated Scout Leader since 1990. He also continues his passion for walking.“