Takitimu North Link

Improving safety and reducing traffic congestion between Tauranga and Te Puna.

The Takitimu North Link four-lane expressway was designed to offer more travel options and reduce congestion between the growing city of Tauranga and nearby township of Te Puna. However, the road crosses a sensitive environmental and historical area, requiring careful ecological and archaeological management and controls.

Our role as a part of this project includes the design and construction of a number of bridges, complex cut to fill earthworks, associated drainage and 6.5 km of road surfacing, plus installing and moving a number of utilities in line with the new expressway. These include water, electric and broadband fibre cables. Creation of a new attenuation wetlands will also provide flood mitigation for the project.

Our work

Construction of eight bridges located along the expressway.

The Wairoa River Bridge, a 355m long, 10 span bridge spanning the Wairoa awa and flood plain. The bridge superstructure consists of precast concrete, pre-stressed NU HEB I-Girder, a first for New Zealand and part of the project sustainability and bridge economy initiatives.

1,000,000 cubic metres of cut to fill staged earthworks in challenging ground conditions.

Pavement construction of 6.5 km of new road.

Creation of new attenuation wetlands for flood mitigation.

Installation of drainage, subsoil drains and services conduits.

Installation of new watermain pipes and relocation of other water, electricity and fibre utilities.

Enormous environmental programme, including archaeological investigations, relocation of local animal species, and other related works.

Our Environment

To date, as a part of this project HEB crews have safely captured and relocated over 100 copper skinks and 8,000 native fish. Additionally, despite challenging ground conditions due to heavy rainfall, erosion and sediment control devices were built across 1,500 metres of the project alignment, and we completed all piling operations in a dense mixed-use area with no complaints.

Our commitment is to deliver good environmental and social outcomes as part of the design, construction and operation of its infrastructure assets at Takitimu North Link, which has adopted the Infrastructure Sustainability Council rating scheme.

The project has committed to:

• >10% reduction in carbon embodied in materials.
• >10% reduction in energy (electricity and fuel) used in construction and operation.
• >10% reduction in water used in construction and operation.
• >25% of waste diverted from landfill.
• >2.5% of the construction value delivered by SMEs based in the Bay of Plenty region.
• >2.5% of the construction value delivered by Māori owned businesses.
• Maintain freshwater connectivity.
• Minimise harm to native fauna.

The goal is for the project to exceed the above commitments.

Sustainable Outcomes

The Bay of Plenty is one of New Zealand’s most archaeologically dense regions, not to mention the significant amount of native bush found here. This means that attention to our environment, tikanga and local communities have been vital to the success of the project.

To date, the team has relocated tens of thousands of native species to ensure their protection, and undertaken significant replanting across the site. By the conclusion of this project, nearly 1 million plants will have been established, plus waterways repaired and rejuvenated. We intend to leave the landscape in better condition than we found it.

On top of that, we have been scouring every square metre of the area for artefacts and culturally sensitive sites before disrupting the land. Archaeologists and local kaitiaki (cultural guardians) have been essential partners to our team, making this one the biggest archaeological investigations in NZ history.

Lastly, we’ve also invited a number of schools and kindies to come and join us on-site, so the kids can learn what we’re up to and how it all works. We hosted a ‘Name the Crane’ competition to get the kids actively involved, and also set up a kumara garden where they’ve been getting their hands dirty.