Future Roads Rising Star Award nominee Angela Parsonage is passionate about pavements.
An AECOM associate director – Pavement NZ – Angela’s passion for pavement design and construction began with internships on roading projects during 2008 and 2009.
That passion continued to grow throughout her career, with roles at Downer, Auckland Transport (AT), and now at AECOM, and on the National Pavement Technical Group where she chairs the research group.
Obsession with pavements
Angela's interest in transportation, especially pavement, began on NZTA’s State Highway 20 to State Highway 1 Manukau Extension project.
The project involved constructing New Zealand’s first ‘upside-down pavement.’ The experience introduced Angela to innovative construction techniques and new methods for testing and qualifying materials. The project team continually refined the construction methodology to meet the engineer's standards, and this process sparked Angela's fascination with optimising construction processes, managing risks, and ensuring quality assurance.
By the end of the project, Angela had an in-depth understanding of specifications and testing frequencies and could recall all pavement types and joint details from memory.
Pavement design leadership
By the time Angela began working on pavement designs at Downer, she had already led various small to medium civil projects as a site engineer in both urban and rural brownfield environments.
During her time there, she designed pavement rehabilitation for AT's South West Urban, Central, and North Rural contracts, with her scope expanding to include Waiheke Island and North West Urban. She was promoted to North Island Pavement Team Lead where she trained new recruits in investigation planning, field and laboratory testing, pavement modelling, and contract knowledge.
Angela and her team successfully delivered designs for approximately $63 million worth of rehabilitation projects against AT’s renewals programme. She also provided ongoing technical support for various projects, including Downer’s pavement packages on the Waterview Connection, modelling alternative options for the Huntly Bypass, Ports of Auckland condition assessment, and Northland pavement rebuilds.
Strategic pavement expertise
Angela provided pavement and surfacing advice to AT on capital works, renewals, and third-party developments within the AT network.
From 2017 to 2022, she led the Auckland-wide High-Speed Data and four Asset Management Roading Professional Services Contracts. As AT’s subject matter expert for pavement, she reviewed the pavement designs for many key projects, such as the City Rail Link packages, Eastern Busway, Matakana Link Road, and the local road portion of the Northern Corridor Improvement project.
Angela joined AECOM in 2022 and has since built a pavement roading team that delivers pavement designs to clients across New Zealand.
Current projects include strategic and complex assignments such as the Eastern Busway, Riverlink, and Rosedale Safety Improvement project. In her role she collaborates closely with AECOM teams in Australia, the UK, Europe, and South Africa to share ideas, lessons, and research.
Angela leads technical workshops to train junior designers in pavement design, effective communication, and risk management. As AECOM’s New Zealand pavement reviewer and verifier, she emphasises the importance of constructability and quality risks, a focus she has maintained throughout her career.
The roading industry Rising Star Award is for the standout person aged under 40 in the New Zealand roading sector, defined by their achievements during their career to-date. It is awarded annually at the Future Roads conference dinner. There are four finalists for 2024. See more here.
The New Zealand roading industry Rising Star Award is sponsored by Jacobs.