She’s a pretty big job
Fotheringhame Contractors have spent four years on earthworks clearing the way for residential housing at Highfields Crossing in Katikati.
Houses are going up fast in the
$6.7 million Highfields Crossing residential subdivision in Katikati, with
11 underway in the first of the three-stage development of 61 lots.
Developed by partners the Lighthouse Group and the Abron Group, the project has been an ongoing for the last four years. Abron Groups property and development manager Cameron (Cam) Scott said they have seen interest now they are getting to the completion of stage one.
Highfields Crossing is about location and will have a varying home typology that will suit varying budgets, from tidy urban design to higher end riverfront living, he said.
“We see Highfields Crossing as a wonderful spot for a varying demographic. Retirees who don’t want to be “in a village” and want to maintain control of their asset. Those who want to free up capital and move to a wonderful little community that has so much to offer. Young professionals who want a quality home for less and to raise a family in a great area, and don’t mind a short commute to Tauranga or a little further to Auckland if their employment requires it.”
Road names in the subdivision are in keeping with the town — entering along Mural Drive and then Vesey Way, named after Irish founder George Vesey Stewart.
Major earthworks including pre-loading have been necessary on half of the
3ha site as the lower area was originally part of the riverbed with marine silts. Pre-loading is done when softer material is found in the sub grades.
“By pre-loading it adds weight on top to squeeze water out and compact lower levels, Cam said.
Fotheringhame Contractors have been carrying out the earth and civil works on site. Earthworks manager Tom Fotheringhame said they started with the original mound near the entrance of around 30,000 cubic metres which was used as compacted fill for some of the lower areas.
“With these ground lifts came the pre-loading to compress the softer soils. This created a deficit of material on site and so far a further 40,000 cubic metres has been imported to provide for these large preloads up to 2m high, with expected settlement being up to 1.5m. This is on top of the design levels which created some substantial piles of earth.”
Being such a large site, not all the pre-loading could be done at once. The job was split into three stages with expected settlement time of around 12 months each. Settlement is monitored with markers installed prior to filling and monitored by surveyors throughout the process. Once settled the excess preload material is moved into the next stage to repeat the process.
“Not only do we have the wait time between settlement periods, we also have the time added of earthworks before and after these settlement periods and civil works, doing the horizontal infrastructure and roading.
“With the last stage (stage
3) of preload and civil works for stage 2 starting now, we’re going to be really busy trying to achieve our goals by winter
2019 — hopefully the weather will play it’s part,” Tom said.
Fotheringhame Contractors say from earthworks to doing subdivisions Highfields has been a business-changing project for them.
“A lot of hard work and pride has gone in from each and every one of the team.
“The subdivision has opened us up with people seeing the work we can do from the roadside with more development work now in Welcome Bay, Omokoroa ¯ and Katikati.”
Tom’s father John Fotheringhame, who is battling cancer but still involved in business decisions, is pleased their team has formed a friendship and partnership with the Abron and Lighthouse Groups.
Cam said he developed relationships with John a long time ago.
“John is always willing to help with information or advice on digger work.
“As we’ve grown we’ve included FCL.
“Giving Tom the job we know we’ve got the right guys on the gear — comfortably. It’s ultimately about good people.”
The first homeowners are likely to move in over the coming weeks.