Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park

The Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park is a 240-hectare development near Kaikohe, bringing together horticulture, agriculture, water storage and purpose-built facilities for research, training and enterprise in the Far North. Cook Costello was engaged to deliver land surveying, geophysics, and civil, geotechnical, and structural engineering services.

The site presented complex ground conditions. Its volcanic geological setting included expansive fine-grained soils, buried boulders, variable groundwater conditions and changing depth to bedrock. These factors created design challenges for earthworks, foundations, seismic site classification and settlement performance across the development.

Several buildings also had irregular floor plans and different structural requirements, meaning foundation and structural systems needed to be tailored to the loads, ground conditions and intended use of each structure.

With surveying, geophysics, geotechnical, civil and structural inputs working from shared site information, our team helped provide:

• Early identification of buried boulders, variable ground conditions and subsurface constraints

• Geotechnical and geophysical inputs to support foundation design and seismic site classification

• Foundation and structural systems tailored to each building and the ground beneath it

• Coordinated engineering advice across a large, technically variable site

• Practical information to support design, construction planning and long-term development

The park now provides a base for students, entrepreneurs and businesses across the Far North. For the developer, early geotechnical and geophysical investigation helped create a clearer picture of the site, giving the project team a stronger basis for design decisions across a large and variable development.

View the aerial flyover of Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park.