News

Thanks from Northland Youth Theatre

Cook Costello Civil Consulting Engineers, have received thanks for support of the Northland Youth Theatre's production "Karanga I Te Po - A Cry in the Night".  The show promoted a conservation message and was seen by approximately 2000 childeren.

Northland Youth Theatre fosters in youth: Patience, Responsibility for the Big Picture, Confidence in Themselves, Trust in themselves and Others, and the ability to Think Outside the Square!

Cook Costello is pleased to help support youth theatre in Northland. 

Northgate Business Park & Port Marsden Industrial Parks are Now Open

• Major storm water attenuation ponds
• Extension to the Whangarei District Councils roading network of an additional 12.5km
• Major storm water drainage, sanitary sewers, potable water installations & upgrades
• Extensions of the power and fibre optic networks

Northland put on its typical magical warm & sunny weather. The team (numbering more than 250 people) enjoyed the blessing prayers from representatives of the local Takehiwai Marae and opening speeches from Whangarei District Council Mayor Stan Seminoff, Northgate Business Park director Oliver Scott and Port Marsden Industrial Park director Paul Gray. Also enjoyed a fabulous Hakeri (Hangi) lunch provided by the team at the Takahewai Marae.

A huge Thank you goes out to the following parties from the team at Cook Costello to make such a day possible:

• North Holdings Development Limited
• Great Northern Land Company Limited
• HEB Construction – Northland
• Transfield Services – Whangarei
• Reyburn & Bryant Surveyors
• Kardon Surveyors & Planners
• Boundary Hunter
• Whangarei District Council
• Northland Regional Council
• Takahewai Marae
• WT Partnership Infrastructure
• White & Associates Construction Cost Consultants
• Realities

New generation Cook Costello continues to bring innovative design solutions to today's challenges

Locally owned civil engineering firm Cook Costello has a long and well respected history in Northland dating back to its establishment in 1976 by David Cook and Terry Costello. David’s son Philip Cook, a Chartered Professional Engineer, is now an owner-director of the business and when Business Northland asked him to list some of the key projects on the company’s CV it became clear they included many of the landmark developments in the region.

This includes work done for the Northland harbour board and Whangarei port.  Also ground breaking engineering was developed for some of the first pre-cast concrete work in New Zealand at Golden Bay Cement.  Infrastructure and heavy haul roads were designed for the Marsden Point Refinery in the seventies and eighties. More recent work that exemplifies Cook Costello’s continuing interest in innovative engineering includes pre-cast curved concrete arch beam buttresses, the development of natural earth terracing which is stabilised by the reinstatement of the natural ecology; and the successful Tarewa Centre.  The adjacent five finger roundabout included the bridge widening and rail bridge reconstruction.

Phil Cook says Cook Costello is basically interested in good quality work where they can apply their special expertise. “We believe we have very innovative methods for storm water design and analysis. We have our own highly regarded geotechnical team who work alongside the Internationally recognised IANZ accredited Northland Soil Mechanics and Testing Laboratory that undertakes specific testing backed by more than 30 years experience in the region. In basic terms their work involves getting the mechanical parameters of the soil so that we can effectively design a suitable foundation for any future structure that’s going to sit on that ground, and know how the ground’s going to behave.” Phil says having special expertise and local knowledge in this field is a very valuable part of Cook Costello’s capabilities, as ‘misbehaving ground’ is an all to common feature of life in the North. “There’s a number of marginal geologies up here which warrant very careful attention and which are substantially underestimated by people who aren’t familiar with the area. Roads are a good example, you can almost treat them as a continuous investigation pit as you drive along, observing cuttings, you can see how much of the slopes, pavement and drainage is failing.”

He says another characteristic of local geology is that there can be major variations within a very small area. “What could be an adequate design for a site could be significantly under-designed if you moved as little as 20 metres. We are developing more and more marginal land in Northland, so doing it right the first time with high quality engineering is very good insurance.”

Cook Costello are the engineers for the new 30 hectare (75 acre) Port Marsden Industrial Park, and Phil says it is a fantastic project needing sound engineering solutions in all aspects of design. “We needed to achieve quality foundations for future buildings. The land is largely sand overlain by up to three metres of peat. Instead of having to specifically engineer all future buildings to deal with the compressible nature of the peat we decided to take the low risk approach of digging all the peat off to leave a sound foundation for construction. Our impressive hydrology team have integrated powerful computer modelling as well as innovative hydrological solutions to ensure that the affect of peak rain falls and total volumes on the site will be the same after development as when it was green fields. We’ve used a mix of on and off-site retention ponds, and a real time mathematical model based on the March floods of last year which were greater than one hundred year events to ensure it can handle something of that severity without flooding.”

Cook Costello looks forward to continuing to play an active role in the positive growth of Northland. Philip said modern engineering was about minimising impact. “We are part of a more environmentally conscious age that gives more context to the environment, looking to minimise the footprints we create on the planet yet meet the growing needs of industry". These challenges have always been a consideration of good engineers, but now client and public awareness mean there is enthusiasm for sustainable developments that encourage considered solutions and excellence.