Sir James Henare housing development
By Haigh Workman Engineering Consultants
The Sir James Henare social housing in Moerewa, near Paihia, is a 35-unit social housing development. It was built by our client Canam Construction, for the Ngati 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 care 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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Sir James Henare housing development
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Haigh Workman Ltd is full-service engineering consultancy with offices in North Auckland and Northland. Our expertise spans all elements of civil, structural, geotechnical and environmental engineering.
We’ve been engineering for Northland for nearly half a century and offer clients a strong team of leading New Zealand consulting engineers with a comprehensive range of skills. They bring specialist expertise, providing creative and quality engineering solutions – regardless of the challenge.
We’re 100 percent Northland-owned and operated, and our growth and success is due in large part to the continued and growing support of our local customer base.
It’s also due, of course, to the proven expertise of our team. All of our engineers, geologists and technicians are hand-picked – not only as experts in their fields, but also for their proven career focus on project delivery and customer support. In plain language: ‘getting stuff done’.
We offer comprehensive project management services. Whether you require stand-alone project management or seamless integration with Haigh Workman design and engineering services, we have the expertise to meet your needs. Our project management services are delivered by experienced project managers with a wide range of experience, both in New Zealand and internationally.
Local procurement is becoming an ever-more important topic as central and local government increasingly seek to make project funding contingent on the involvement of smaller, locally- or Māori-owned businesses in the delivery of the project.
Aspects of this wellbeing procurement approach can be challenging for project owners though. Our team can help you navigate these requirements – both on an individual project basis and as part of an ongoing strategy of community development and engagement. We believe this capability is not yet commonly offered in civil engineering in NZ.
For our own part, we make a point of buying local; working with local, Northland sub-contractors on our engineering projects wherever we possibly can. For us this is an important aspect of our own investment in the communities where our talented people and their families live, work and play.
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