This profile was first published in IPWEA's inspire magazine. 

We took five with Angelo Catinari, General Manager Urban Services at City of West Torrens, to learn more about the role he’s held for a decade.

intouch: What does a typical day look like for you?

Catinari: There is no such thing as a typical day for me. Working in a city and profession that is diverse, unique and continues to flourish physically, socially and economically – together with being charged with the responsibility for close to a $1 billion in assets and council planning and building functions – the only typical things about my day are my caffeine intake and the number of emails and phone calls I receive! 

intouch: What is something that might surprise people about your role?

Catinari: My portfolio entails the traditional functions of local government public works engineering. However one function that is a little left field is being responsible for the city’s town planning and building functions. What, an engineer being in charge of town planners?

Being born and bred in the city that I now have significant responsibility for is something that I am very proud of, and those who know me know how passionate and dedicated I am to this. However, being entrenched for more than 40 years in a city does have its pros and cons, which I won’t go into now! 

intouch: What current or future council projects are you most excited about?

Catinari: Being an established inner metropolitan city that adjoins the Adelaide CBD and spans to the western coastline, West Torrens prides itself on its geographical location, community development, sustainability and built environment. A unique combination of attributes and attractions, including an international capital city airport, make the City of West Torrens an unparalleled place to live, work, visit and invest. The scale of opportunities in our city continues to grow. There has been, and continues to be, a significant amount of public and private infrastructure investment in our city, which I am fortunate to play a key role in. There have been numerous projects that I have been excited to be leading. No matter how big or small they are all important in some way for our community. The city is going through an infrastructure spending spree, which is the biggest in our history; projects focusing on flood mitigation and building new key community sporting facilities tend to consume much of my time. If I had to pick one project, then the uniqueness of restoring a 106-year-old, 45m-high state heritage listed Hoffman Kiln, which is one of only four left standing in Australia, is a standout.

The project was complex, ensuring that all works were undertaken in adherence to stringent heritage, technical and risk standards, safeguarding the restoration of this iconic asset.

A personal highlight of the project was inspecting the brickwork at the top of the chimney some 45m above ground on a scaffolding a metre or so wide. 

intouch: What aspects of your role do you find the most challenging?

Catinari: Like anything in life there are always challenges in the workplace! With challenges, opportunities are presented. I always treat challenges as ‘gifts’ and opportunities as ‘parties’; some are big, some are small, some are expensive, some get you in trouble and some make you very happy, but most importantly I’d rather receive a gift and be involved in a party than have nothing at all! I must also say that I resent being stuck in an office, working on dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. I also find it hard keeping away from the hands-on aspects of getting my hands and boots dirty on new infrastructure projects.

intouch: What makes you passionate about public works?

Catinari: It is a little over 18 years ago that I first became involved in the then Institute of Municipal Engineering and have now served on the South Australian board for more than 13 years and the Australasian Board for close to five years.

Since my appointment as IPWEA SA President in late 2011, I have strived to increase the profile of the Association, as it is this Association together with its members and corporate partners that help shape the communities we all live in.

As a former Board Director of IPWEA at both Division and Australasian levels and a NAMs Council Member, I have worked tirelessly to uphold commitment to the development and improvement of the public works engineering profession by promoting and demonstrating high professional standards and ensuring our members and the communities we represent are at the forefront of change and innovation.

From a personal perspective, I have been privileged to serve the community and represent the public works profession to collectively and harmoniously achieve its desired aims and outcomes. Having the relevant experience and background with IPWEA, my knowledge of the engineering profession and being employed in an executive role, I feel I am well placed to help lead our profession to its next phase.

In my view public works professionals should possess a good-natured personality and strive at all times to build not just nice new infrastructure assets, but build successful teams, build great rapport, build a mindset to motivate and encourage new ideas to achieve results, and work towards common goals whilst not losing focus of reality and the task at hand.