Stretching 87 kms from the stunning Bay of Islands to the tranquil Hokianga Harbour, Pou Herenga Tai Twin-Coast Cycle Trail is one of Ngā Haerenga, or Great Rides of New Zealand – the country’s premier collection of cycle trails. It is the northernmost of these, comprising four sections, and can be ridden in  either direction.

Offering stunning scenery with magnificent views, Pou Herenga Tai traces the ancient trading route between both Far North coasts and provides a fascinating journey through the earliest Māori and European settlements in Aotearoa. 

Haigh Workman has had the honour and privilege of being involved in the design and construction of the trail from the earliest days of its inception. There was an immense amount of work necessary to bring the trail off the map and onto the ground, and our handiwork is evident on almost every kilometre of the ride.

From Opua to Okaihau the route follows the old railway alignment, part of which first started life in 1868 as a bush tramway carrying coal from the mines at Kawakawa to a wharf at Taumarere. Our challenges with this project included the assessment and refurbishment of dilapidated railway structures, mostly short-span steel and timber structures but also Long Bridge at Taumarere, the longest trestle railway bridge in the southern hemisphere, and two overbridge stock crossings.

Not all of the former rail line was available for use by the trail and some short sections had to be developed within the Council road corridor. From Okaihau the trail crosses 12.5km of private land, including a spectacular two-kilometre steep descent with numerous switchbacks and stunning scenery along the banks of the Otakura River. It also involved the construction of 1,400m of boardwalk – New Zealand’s longest – across saltwater wetland on the final approach to Horeke.

Our input on this project spanned route feasibility and design (ensuring manageable gradients on the stages where there was never a former railway for the trail to follow), preliminary geotechnical investigation (to ensure the resilience of the trail and the safety of riders) and the actual earthworks involved in creating the trail. We also designed and prepared construction drawings for many of the structures on and along the trail. And we developed the engineers’ contracts for many of the local organisations tasked with actually building the trail.

Complexities, there were many. Not least of which being the sometimes-delicate balance between what was needed for the integrity of the trail and the wishes of the owners of the private land through which several sections traverse. 

Another significant complication arose from the fact that, in the early days of the trail, cyclists shared the rail corridor with a functioning rail service operated by the Bay of Islands Vintage Rail Trust. 

These days our team occasionally breaks out the bikes, whips out the lycra, fills up the camelbaks and heads out along a section, or in some cases the whole thing, for a bit of competitive or not-so-competitive bonding. And, as we ride along, we take quiet pride in the hours and expertise which have delivered such a wonderful piece of infrastructure for Kiwis from right around the country to enjoy.

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The entrance to Bossy Ltd’s Lone Gum Lane housing development in Kerikeri is striking. The lone gum-tree for which the road, and its housing development, are named stands sentinel at the top of the road. As you wind your way down into a beautiful, park-like riverine reserve, spacious lots designed with luxurious living in mind unfold before you.

This is a premium housing development in one of Kerikeri’s most exclusive neighbourhoods. Haigh Workman was delighted to work with contractor Siteworx and our client Bossy Ltd to prepare the site for development and on infrastructure engineering.

This was the second such land development undertaken in the immediate area by Bossy Ltd. Our brief involved the initial site investigation (including geotechnical analysis), design of the development and the associated earthworks, all aspects of stormwater management, provision of services and full roading and traffic design. We also supported the Resource Consent application, monitored construction and provided PS4 and 224C documentation for Council sign-off.

Engineering the access road to Council’s urban-road specifications was particularly interesting; it winds down a steep hillside with a gully on one side and existing housing on the upward slope. We were faced with the challenge of cutting into the hillside to form the road, without potentially removing support for the ground and housing on the slope above.

Our solution involved mass block gravity walls. The hard soil and shallow rocks of the area would have made it difficult and prohibitively expensive to drill piles so we relied on mass to provide support for the ground above. As a result, attention to detail in the design of the holding wall was key.

Internally at Haigh Workman, one of our measures of success is the invisibility of the engineering involved in any project. The building, structure or design should always be the hero, we feel. The bit that keeps it all up, or enables the design to work, is what we do – and when no-one can see it, that’s when we know we’ve cracked the job. This is very much the case on Lone Gum Lane; as you meander down the hillside into the heart of the development there is very little to draw attention to the two massive retaining walls that make the access road viable. The blocks comprising the upper wall are molded in the style of quarried rock, their outline softened with staggered levels and lush plantings that cascade over the lip.

For our team, one of the great joys of this project was our ability to follow it through each and every stage of its development. From a purely greenfield site with no design concept, through to working with some of the new section-owners – some of who had never owned property before – on the design and build of their new homes. And every conceivable aspect of engineering in between. 

It gives us very real pleasure to be part of that full land development circle. Particularly when, as sometimes happens in small communities such as ours, our own staff end up buying properties we’ve helped develop. Projects like these always remind us of the humanity behind what we do. 

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The iconic Kauri Cliffs golf course and accommodation near Northland’s Matauri Bay is part of the luxurious Robertson Lodges offering. The owners, through their project management firm Frequency, engaged Haigh Workman to assist with the development of their infrastructure master plan for this large land holding. They wanted to work with a Northland engineering firm that could offer the experience and local knowledge necessary for robust planning and sound decision-making around the future of the Kauri Cliffs enterprise.

Our brief spanned two distinct elements of work; an assessment of the infrastructure on site, and engineering services for initial construction work.

The purpose of the infrastructure audit was to inform and develop the master plan. We assessed existing and potential future infrastructure, capacity and capability for water (drinking, waste and storm), and site access – both physical access and access for these services. 

We consolidated all this information, gleaned from dozens of separate and independent sources, into a single series of reference drawings for incorporation in the master plan. This was one of the most challenging aspects of the project; information was abundant but scattered across many different sources – much of it official but some of it informal – including anecdotal information about work or development undertaken many years previously.

This gave the owners for the first time a single comprehensive overview of what existed by way of these services, what was possible in terms of land-use and, through a series of engineers’ estimates, the investment required to enable their vision for the future. 

We also developed a construction and funding stage-plan for the master plan, ensuring that financing could be drawn down and used in the most efficient way possible.

In short, what we did for our client was to overlay their master plan with the facts, figures and engineering realities that turned it from a theoretical vision into a fully-costed, workable plan for the future.

The second element of work was around delivery of engineering services for the initial stages of the land development in Kauri Cliffs’ master plan – a range of new on-site accommodation, initially for staff, that will enhance the resilience of the operation. This involved geotechnical investigation and earthworks, and the ‘Three Waters’ (drinking water, wastewater design and stormwater management).

This was an intensive and high-stakes, but rewarding, piece of work for a client with very high standards and expectations. Just the sort of challenge our team relishes. Kauri Cliffs is an important piece of Northland’s tourism infrastructure and we were delighted to be able to contribute to its long-term planning and development. And, in so doing, underpin regional economic development.

Doing good things for good people and, as part of the deal, supporting Northland communities. It’s what gets us out of bed in the mornings.

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The Marohapa social housing in Moerewa, near Paihia, is a 35-unit social housing development. It was built by our client Canam Construction, for the Ngāti Hine Health Trust. Canam is a privately-owned New Zealand business that specialises in the construction, refurbishment and fit-out of commercial and residential buildings. It has offices in Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and Northland.

After decades of under-investment in the area of social housing, new building projects are mushrooming all over the country. Northland is no exception.

Canam was looking for a local, Far North engineering firm to help deliver this project and we were delighted to be able to help. We try to put community at the heart of everything we do at Haigh Workman, so helping to grow Northland’s stock of desperately-needed social housing fits beautifully with our values and our purpose. 

We had two roles in this project. Firstly, we undertook the structural design for the 35 units and an associated wellness centre. The plans called for eight different designs across all the units, some of which are double-storey. They vary from two to four bedrooms.

Our biggest challenge was time. The deadline we were asked to work to was very tight indeed so the team pulled out all the stops and delivered as requested, demonstrating the flexibility and commitment we like to think are the hallmarks of any Haigh Workman project.

The second part of our involvement was built around project management. In the early stages we worked closely with the project architect to ensure, between us, that Canam was receiving the very best possible value for money. With projects like this, value engineering is incredibly important. Design, engineering and construction choices – for instance, are we able to use glulam timber instead of steel – can make the difference between whether a project is financially viable or not. This focus in value engineering undoubtedly helped ensure that the project came in not only on time, but also on budget. 

Once building started we were responsible for construction management.

Our team found working on this project hugely rewarding. It’s exactly the sort of end product that floats our boat and the various challenges around time-scales and project delivery really kept us on our toes. We look forward to working on other social housing projects as government investment continues and Northland providers start chipping away at the backlog.

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We always get a massive buzz from doing work that we know improves the lives of the communities in which we ourselves live, work and play. One such project has to be that commissioned by Northland Regional Council to reduce the risk of Otiria and Moerewa flooding.

The Otiria and Waiharakeke streams are part of the Kawakawa River system. The streams have always spilled after heavy rains over wide floodplains between Otiria and Kawakawa. But for decades roads, bridges and an embankment built for a now-defunct railway line have combined to create havoc with this natural cycle – channelling floodwaters into residential properties, marae and a community rugby club in Otiria and Moerewa. 

During big floods about 80 percent of the water from the Otiria Stream spilled over nearby land, as did 70 percent from the Waiharakeke Stream. The increasing frequency and severity of these events had become intolerable for these communities, so extensive stormwater management and flood mitigation work was commissioned by Northland Regional Council. Haigh Workman was engaged by the Council to conduct a feasibility study into whether it was possible to protect these communities from floods by restoring the streams’ natural flows and, if so, how this might be achieved. 

Having delivered the good news that, yes, protection was technically possible, we were then tasked with developing the preliminary design, the geotechnical study and reporting, and the detailed infrastructure engineering design resulting from these findings. 

We developed a three-stage plan that diverts floodwater from the Otiria stream via a spillway beneath two of the ‘problem’ roads and into the neighbouring Waiharakeke stream – away from some of the most flood-prone housing in Otiria and Moerewa. The Waiharakeke stream is then contained in its channel by a series of overflow channels and stop-banks.

Once the feasibility, planning and design stages were completed we were briefed by our client, the Council, to provide the engineering support for the consenting process. We also provided contaminated soils investigation and remediation, project pricing for funding and contract documentation. 

Then, with the project consented and given the go-ahead by our client, we undertook all elements of construction management, including roading and traffic management.

This was an extremely rewarding project that has made a huge difference to the quality of life of some of the most flood-prone communities in our district. We were very grateful to have been asked to help and delighted to have been able to do so.

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Ultimately, community development is what shapes and drives us at Haigh Workman. Sporting infrastructure is still relatively sparse in the Mid North, despite the burgeoning population, and Te Puāwaitanga is a land development project with community at its core. So we relished the opportunity to help carve this multi-code sporting facility out of some raw paddocks in a Waipapa floodplain. 

Haigh Workman undertook all engineering on this complex site; a floodplain with soft alluvial soils. In many ways a site of this nature is ideally suited for sports fields. However, it did present significant infrastructure engineering challenges – not least ensuring that playing surfaces are elevated and that drainage is sufficient to keep the site dry and mitigate against the risk of flooding.

We conducted a pre-purchase geotech investigation of the site for our client, Far North District Council. This revealed deep soft soils with an extremely shallow water table. Significant ground improvement would be required for building on a site of this nature, requiring a lot of attention to detail.

The shallow water table meant that earthworks needed to be minimised in order not to ‘fight the ground’. We were reliant on following the existing levels to a significant degree – we didn’t want to do more than break the top-soil.

Added complexity came in the form of sports-field placement. The fact that this is a multi-code facility meant that the requirements of differing codes played a significant part in deciding on the size and orientation of the sporting surfaces – and the complex and extensive stormwater management facilities had to be worked around these.

All stormwater pipes had to be placed below the water table in extremely soft soil. Our client’s focus on social, or ‘broader outcomes’, procurement for this project dictated that there were many local, smaller contractors undertaking earthworks and associated site preparation. This focus on local procurement meant we were working with businesses that hadn’t yet been exposed to this level of site complexity, so significant amounts of liaison and oversight were required on our part.

Contractor engagement was an important part of our role on this project. With particular emphasis on ensuring a coordinated approach – minimising the potential for either duplicated work or gaps in the work-stream.

Another requirement for sensitive account management and good people-management and community engagement skills lay in the fact that we and the project managers were working with a variety of (sometimes competing) interests. These took the form of different community groups and sporting codes – all with their own requirements of this Council-led community initiative. 

Roading and traffic engineering was an important part of this project. The entrance to Te Puāwaitanga is off a particularly busy, and previously extremely narrow, section of State Highway 10. This involved significant planning and liaison with Waka Kotahi/New Zealand Transport Agency. The design and development of car-parking for the facility was also part of our brief.

The community has some ambitious plans for this facility. Plans that extend far beyond the core facilities that will be in place by the time the first phase of development is complete. We’re delighted to know that as Te Puāwaitanga grows it will do so on foundations, and using infrastructure, that we were lucky enough to have been involved in creating.

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Haigh Workman has the privilege of being the lead consultant in the development of Arvida’s Te Puna Waiora Retirement Village in Kerikeri. This Auckland-based, publicly-listed retirement living provider wanted to work with a local engineering firm to help realise its ambitions for a high-quality retirement village in the Mid North.  

Our involvement in this decade-long project started in 2017 at the pre-purchase stage, with a site ‘walk-over’ with our client to assess the general suitability of the site. Any developer can obtain significant value by bringing an engineering company in at the very earliest stages of the project to assess aspects such as the availability of suitable infrastructure and the phasing of any geotechnical engineering work that might be necessary.

As with any land development, the timing of this project was key. Kerikeri’s expanded wastewater treatment plant was under construction and, for the first time, a significant tranche of land that could be serviced by this enlarged facility was becoming available. We were able to use this local knowledge to help Arvida assess its options.

It’s always a pleasure to work with a client who is willing to be guided on aspects of its development and Arvida is one such. We were involved in the project master-planning and were able to coordinate early in the process with other experts who were key to the project’s success; architects, landscape architects, noise and acoustics experts, planners and community engagement facilitators, to name just a few.

We’ve had the pleasure of being involved with this project from design to the completion of various stages of construction, and then handover. It’s been a challenging yet incredibly satisfying piece of work. At Te Puna Waiora we’ve done everything that could possibly fit under the engineering banner: roading and traffic, civil works and infrastructure engineering, geotech, site design, structural design, environmental engineering relating to stormwater management and wastewater design, remediation of contaminated land (it was a HAIL site), and construction monitoring.

Social procurement has been an important feature of our project management. As lead consultant we’ve been responsible for delivering to Arvida a turn-key solution and this has involved local procurement; engaging, managing and – where necessary – upskilling a team of contractors based entirely in Northland. On any day there are as many as 100 contractors on site.

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