You’ve probably seen them around the neighbourhood by now, along the sidewalks and in the streets, across the development sites or even the property next door. Who are these workers in high-vis and hardhats? What are they doing? And what does that have to do with the new warm, dry homes coming to your neighbourhood? Read on to learn more about our civil works alliance, Piritahi.

Who is Piritahi?

Piritahi is an alliance of civils and construction companies, working together to prepare the land in Northcote so that our builder partners can start building new houses. The Northcote Development isn’t just about building more houses though - it’s also about making Northcote an even better place to live. Piritahi helps us with this by building new and upgrading existing infrastructure and public amenity.

What is Piritahi doing in my neighbourhood?

Piritahi is responsible for a wide range of jobs. These include remediating land on residential development sites so they are safe to build and live on; removing asbestos from old state houses so they can be safely removed; and relocating, restoring or recycling old state homes to make way for more new warm, dry, healthy state and market homes. 

They’re also responsible for separating combined stormwater and wastewater networks to prevent overflows into backyards, parks and waterways; undergrounding power and telecommunication lines to protect them from severe weather events, for example; upgrading parks and green spaces so that they are safer and more connected; and building new transport routes like cycleways and pathways so that you can get around with ease.

How does Piritahi help us to deliver more warm, dry homes to Northcote?

The Northcote Development will see 1,500 new homes delivered to the area over the next 5 years. That’s a lot of houses. So before building starts, Kāinga Ora must be satisfied that Northcote’s infrastructure can support the Northcote community’s current and future needs. 

Like a lot of areas around Auckland, much of Northcote’s existing infrastructure is out of date and needs to be replaced or upgraded. In some instances, new infrastructure needs to be built too. It’s a big job, one that often prevents getting houses built quickly.

Piritahi brings together industry experts, combining their skills and expertise to free up constraints around building and streamline land development. That way, they’re able speed up the delivery of build-ready land so that we’re able to get more homes built faster in Northcote.

Who do I contact?

If you have any questions about the work Piritahi is doing in your neighbourhood, you can contact them on 0508 PIRITAHI, mail them at info@piritahi.nz or head to the Piritahi website at piritahi.nz.