20 in Their 20s 2023

Talk about being in the right place at the right time. When Kara Fragola was an intern at global construction giant Skanska, a senior engineer stepped down, freeing up an immediate opening. Even though she was an undergraduate at Columbia, she said yes and has been with the company since, even though juggling school and work often required a balancing act worthy of a Skanska bridge.

Just scan the landscape to find a Fragola project. One involved LaGuardia Airport, which shed its “third world” tag by way of a $8 billion, six-year and almost universally praised upgrade. “For a long time all I heard was, ‘Why is nothing happening at LaGuardia?’ And then when it was done, everybody was like ‘Great job!’” said Fragola, who worked on the airport’s access roads.

Another focus has been Harmon Yard, a Metro-North facility in Croton-on-Hudson in Westchester County, where about 150 contractors are developing a $360 million, 240,000-square-foot maintenance structure. Fragola’s oversight responsibilities there include the minute and the monumental, from selecting bathroom tiles to installing hoists that can lift entire train cars to allow them to be repaired.

It’s not often you encounter a woman who went to an Ivy League school working in the construction industry. How did you get there?

I didn’t even know what an engineer was when I was growing up. But I loved math and science, and did well in physics. And when I was growing up in Westchester, the new Tappan Zee bridge was being built, and I thought that was the coolest thing. But my parents also guided me. My dad, Robert, who did sales for cybersecurity companies, also coached my basketball team. He taught me about teamwork, and construction really is a team sport. My mom, Lauren, works as an administrator at a law firm in Midtown Manhattan. When the firm was renovating its office, my mom let me sit in on Friday meetings when they talked about the job with a hardhat on. After my dad died from cancer, my mom also exemplified how to be a leader. She worked and allowed us to continue living our life.

I bet there are many people who wish their own college internships led to such a big break. Can you share more?

The summer after my junior year, I was working on the LaGuardia project, commuting back and forth to Queens from Morningside Heights. When you start out as an intern and get thrown into a megaproject, it can be daunting, but from day one it was just open arms from the team. When I agreed to accept the engineering position, I had to rearrange my Columbia schedule so all my classes fell at the beginning of the week. That way I could work for Skanska on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Tell me about one of your proudest accomplishments at Skanska outside of construction sites.

I’ve been licensed to fly a drone since high school and founded a drone program for the company in the Northeast. We now use survey-grade drones to map out sites for jobs we’re pursuing and to take photos for marketing. We also use drones for inspections, like we did recently for a Philadelphia bridge. If we had done that one in person, it would have required scaffolding and been time-consuming and had some safety risks.