Heather Padavell Receives RT&S Award

Project Manager Heather Padavell is one of 14 individuals named to the 2025 Railway Track & Structures Women in Rail Engineering list.

Padavell is based in Ft. Saskatchewan, Alberta. She has been with Watco less than a year but has contributed to the industry in Canada for several years as a professional engineer. She spent the initial part of her 15-year career as a civil design engineer. She advanced to project engineering and then project management, where she has been leading projects in transportation for the last six years.

Her involvement on a light rail transit project in Edmonton over the last three years was her segue into freight rail design and construction for Watco, where she is leading a $170 million rail expansion project across two brownfield industrial sites in Alberta. She joined the Watco project team as conceptual designs were finalizing and will lead the project through engineering and construction to completion, scheduled for late 2028.

Jay Coomes, AVP of Project Management, is Padavell’s supervisor and provided background for her nomination. “I am 33 years into my career of leading engineering and project management teams,” he said. “I have seen a lot of high performers, and I would put Heather in the top 2% of engineers and project managers I have worked with.”

Padavell and the other RT&S honorees will be recognized at an awards luncheon at the annual Railway Age/RT&S Women in Rail conference in October in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.