Bridges “are like works of art”

When Sabina Piras CPEng began studying engineering in San Diego, California, it didn’t take her long to realise she wanted to be a bridge engineer.

“Bridges often serve as iconic statement pieces for cities, which makes the work both technically and creatively fulfilling,” she says. “They are like works of art. The physics of how they work is quite intuitive to me, for example, I can easily visualise the load paths.” 

Technical Principal in Bridge Engineering at WSP and winner of the Young Engineer Award at the 2025 Engineering New Zealand ENVI Awards, Sabina has already made a significant contribution to bridge engineering, having been involved in the design of landmark and community-impacting projects both abroad and in Aotearoa. 

“I moved to New Zealand because I’ve always believed that to become a great engineer, you need to step outside your comfort zone and expose yourself to new codes, standards and construction practices,” she says. 

Following her move to Auckland in 2017, Sabina completed a PhD at the University of Canterbury, offering innovative insights into the seismic performance of bridge columns and the impact of soil-structure interaction – work that is likely to impact the New Zealand Bridge Manual.

She describes that time as “by far the hardest three years of my life, and also quite transformative”.

“It challenged me to grow in how I communicate and solve problems. I went from a world of consultancy to the more open-ended environment of academia, which changed the way that I approach engineering challenges.”

Sabina says the earthquakes in Christchurch are a powerful reminder of the immense responsibility engineers have for preserving life and livelihoods. Similarly, she says the rebuilding after Cyclone Gabrielle, in which she has been intrinsically involved, has been eye-opening.

“Rebuilding after Cyclone Gabrielle, especially the Moteo-Puketapu Bridge in Hawke’s Bay, has required instilling confidence into the community. A lot of people are traumatised from the events, watching the bridges get washed away and their communities being cut off. I can only imagine how distressing that was.” 

She says there are some significant differences between bridge engineering here and in the United States. 

“The scale of projects is obviously the biggest difference, particularly in states like California, where they are predominantly cast in situ. Here, precast construction is far more common.”

Recently, she’s applied a lot of United States’ design philosophy to her New Zealand infrastructure projects to help save costs and reduce the environmental footprint. 

“Coming from the US, I’ve been able to bring alternative methods to the table,” she says. “For example, in California we tend to design for more sacrificial damage, while here we try to keep everything intact after an earthquake, which can result in a much more expensive design.

“But if we can allow a little bit of damage, which we can easily inspect and repair, then that’s so much better than spending an extra million on construction.” 

Sabina’s ENVI Award win in part recognised her leadership skills. She believes a good leader is someone who can steady the ship through natural ups and downs of project work. 

“Projects come in waves, there are intense periods where burnout is a real risk and there are times when people may feel underutilised, so it’s important to keep morale high through both ends of that spectrum.”

She believes leaders are ideally extroverted, “... which, fortunately, I am. My love language is communication. I believe in being very transparent and bringing everyone along on the journey”.

Sabina is intent on supporting other young, motivated women in engineering.

“It’s more than just about building confidence but giving them the exposure and experience that they’re going to need in a male-dominated field.”

As the mother of three girls, including twins born earlier in the year, she tries to lead by example and show that it’s possible to have a fulfilling career and a family. 

And if that were not enough, Sabina is also a competitive long-distance runner having competed, among other key events, in the US Olympic Team Trials – Marathon and the Ironman World Championships.

She says she’s lucky to have chosen a career that doesn’t feel like a job, and the need for constant problem solving is part of what drives her.

“I find a lot of motivation seeing tangible results from my work, knowing that I’m contributing to something lasting, something that’s going to impact communities. That sense of purpose, combined with the opportunity to keep learning, is what fuels my passion and energy.”

And, she says: “How cool is it that I can walk across the bridges I’ve had a huge part in making, with my daughters and say, ‘your Mum did this’.”

This article was first published in the December 2025 issue of EG magazine.