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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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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