The project director of WHB is most proud of the construction of the Buda Windgate

WEST HUNGÁRIA BAU Kft. places great emphasis on keeping up with the rapid development of the industry, and the key to its success is the efficiency of its experienced and loyal staff.We spoke to László Köllő, Project Manager of WHB, about how he came to work for the company, which projects he finds most memorable, and also about the challenges that motivate him in his work.

• How did you get WHB?

I first got into construction when I was eleven, working a summer job with a bricklaying crew to help my parents and earn some money of my own. Later, I worked alongside my father in the family business, which is how I was introduced to the WHB.

I've been with the company since 2007 and I've come absolutely from the bottom of the ladder: I started as a bicycle foreman and in 17 years I've managed to get to my current position. I was foreman until 2009, site manager from 2009 to 2018, and from 2018 I worked as facilities supervisor until spring this year, when I was appointed project manager. It was a long way, but it went by very quickly if only because I hardly think in terms of years, just projects a lot of the time.

I joined the company at a very fortunate time, I was able to grow with the company.

Somehow, as the company grew, it always happened organically that I was given a new position at WHB; but obviously it also required the openness, receptiveness and family support of management and colleagues. I think that the biggest advantage of WHB is that it is not a classic large company, the tasks that are assigned to each person can be kept on a human scale, but at the same time we do not have a sharp boundary, so we have a greater insight into a problem or task and can look for the best possible solution more freely. For me, the most positive thing is that it's a very good working environment: if you like challenges, you can find them here and they let you tackle them, but it's also a very good community, so you can always ask for help.

• What led you to your current position?

I think that you need a lot of ingredients to move forward in your career. Family background is already an important part of this, because we bring a lot of core values from there to the workplace. I think,

Two key concepts in my professional development are motivation and humility, which are very characteristic of me - they have accompanied me throughout my career.

It's very important that whatever the task, you keep the day-to-day, week-to-week, project-to-project mindset, so that the other ingredients can more easily be combined with the basics and lead to success - and luck is one of the ingredients.

It is also very important to have colleagues who inspire you and from whom you can learn. For me, there are two very important people who are still working in the company today in senior positions.

As time went on, I was given more and more serious projects, which increasingly focused on teamwork - something you have to learn to do. The result of this learning process is that you can surround yourself with people who have a similar mindset to you, which is how a team can be really effective.

• What are the projects that you consider to be the defining points?

There are many of them. In seventeen years, I've been exposed to the whole spectrum of construction, from civil engineering to restoration. Whether it's the renovation of a listed building or a sports facility, you can find a challenge, whether it's a deadline, a financial constraint or an engineering difficulty. For me, the Millenáris Széllkapu project has been my proudest achievement so far, and it was a turning point in my professional life. I started this project as a site manager and moved to another chair in the first third of the work. This was a particular challenge because it is not an easy question to change the approach within a project -

You have to look at a project in a completely different way when you are out in the field or when you have to do the strategic part of it.

The Windgate not only combined civil engineering and landscape architecture, as an industrial site, it was also heavily contaminated with contaminated soil and old building foundations. The Windgate is one of the few works that I have followed up since it was handed over, I have been back there several times as a guest and it is always a pleasure to see that people love it.

• Do you also work at the Tisza Castle in Geszti?

Yes, its handover is imminent, the project is already at the finishing line. This is a very different job from a new building, because renovating a monument requires a different set of skills. I'm a very fast-paced person, so the most difficult thing for me on the Tisza Castle was to learn that such a construction project takes place at a completely different pace to what I'm used to. You have to accept that some parts of the construction work will be completed at a different pace and, of course, in a different way than on a new construction. I have now come to accept this and I feel that we will finish the project with a very nice result.

• What is new about the development of the prison in Chisinau compared to these?

My biggest job at the moment is coordinating the construction of a new prison for 1,500 prisoners at the Chisinau institute. The location is a huge challenge for me, as I alternate between Győrújbarát in Geszt in the eastern part of the country and Csenger in the south-western border region; but it was just as much of a challenge to develop a subcontractor pool and my own team to carry out this fast-paced work.

We have 15 months to build the prison, so we're using design & build.

In recent years, there has been an ongoing problem with prisoner numbers. A partial solution to this was a temporary increase in capacity, which we also participated in. It was also a forced process, as we had three months to complete it. This temporarily addressed the problem but did not provide a permanent solution. We need a new facility in our country that can operate under the strictest rules. The project is also a major milestone in the life of the company, because it is not only the largest single project of WHB, but also a real curiosity, as no prison has been built in Hungary in living memory that was built with the future users in mind.

• How can you become a good project manager?

Perhaps I have got this far because I have always tried to look out for those above and below me in my role. I was always thinking about what could be done better, where it could be done better, and I always tried to implement those observations wherever they were welcome - whether in teamwork, technical preparation or implementation.

For me, it is always important to ensure that the work is carried out to the highest possible quality, as contracts nowadays have quite long warranty periods, so it is also our company's expectation that we should not have to return to the installations for warranty repairs. So we have to do it in such a way that there are as few problems as possible during use.

With the experience of the last 17 years, which is not lost, I can still use my knowledge; and together with my colleagues I feel that we can really create something lasting.