Katy Dowding is not where she should be. Our interview was supposed to take place at Skanska UK’s South Molton site, just down the road from Bond Street station where it has broken ground on the £140m first phase of the mixed-use scheme for Grosvenor and Mitsui Fudosan UK. But there has been a change of plan.

Dowding emerges from a meeting room at the tier one contractor’s City office at 51 Moorgate, extending a hand covered by a medical wrist support and walking slightly gingerly. The PR had warned she had hurt her knee, and it turns out a skiing accident has resulted in a severed cruciate ligament and a possible broken bone in her hand. Walking does not hurt too much, it is just that uneven surfaces are not recommended, so site visits are a no-no.

Still, it must have been very painful at the time? “Let’s just say, I think I said something to the effect of ‘gosh that hurts’ but with stronger words,” she deadpans with a grimace.

Dowding, 55, likes to be on the move, a big part of being the CEO and president of Skanska UK is obviously travelling around the country visiting project teams on site. “It’s my favourite thing, getting out on site,” she says, clearly annoyed about not being able to get to two new sites – South Molton and 7 Millbank, the former British American Tobacco HQ in Westminster – because of her knee. “I will find a way, I will get to the projects even if not on the actual site.”