Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai (The Path of Land and Sea), is a 7km-long path from Glen Innes township to Tāmaki Drive, in the Auckland suburb of Meadowbank. It is a prime example of the kind of project that Resolve Group likes to be involved with – a high-quality end-user experience combined with the delivery of a sensitive construction plan that kept impact as low as possible, required close liason with the local community and iwi, and included thoughtful landscaping, art installation and lighting design.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and Auckland Transport have been working in partnership with Ngāti Whatua Ōrākei on all design and build elements. Resolve Group’s Darren Edwards, Steve Griffith, Keith Swedhin, Kathleen Hart, Hussam Abdul-Rassol, and Martin Leak have been involved in a Programme Management, Procurement advisory and Construction supervision capacity for all four sections, three of which have been completed so far.

Section 2 has been under construction since 2020 and was opened to the public in May 2022. It gives an uninterrupted 5km-commuting experience through Pourewa Valley, over the Orakei Basin Eastern rail line and through Tahapa Reserve, connecting with Tamaki Drive via an over-water boardwalk running parallel with Ngapipi Road. Enabling better connections for active modes and links to public transport, Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai is also expected to become one of the city’s most scenic bike routes.

The safety of road users is a daily concern for the transportation engineers of Resolve Group and we are always pleased to be involved in projects that contribute to improvements in safety outcomes.

For the last eight months, Resolve Group’s Hussam Rassol has been providing day-to-day Project Management services on behalf of Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency for one of the most dangerous routes in the North Island, Dome Valley. This 17km corridor of State Highway 1 between Wellsford and Warkworth is windy with poor visibility and steep slopes, and has contributed to five deaths and 25 serious injuries between 2015 and 2019.

The project began in September 2019 and is being delivered in five stages as part of the government’s Road to Zero programme. Stages Two and Four are already complete, and stages Three and Five will be completed shortly. Stage One is being re-scoped with physical works expected to start in October 2022. The work consists of:

• Installing flexible median safety barriers to prevent head-on crashes and creating a wide centreline so there’s more space between oncoming vehicles
• Installing semi-rigid W-section side barriers at location where there are safety hazards that requires protections
• Making road shoulders wider so it’s safer to pull over, if needed
• Adding two new right-turn bays to make it safer to turn
• Replacing the north- and south-bound passing lanes with a wide shoulder so slow vehicles have room to pull over

With more than 12,000 vehicles travelling this route on any given day, this is considered a critical project that will prevent, on average, at least four people from dying or receiving serious injuries each year.