The Living Pā construction site is unconventional in many ways. Here are a few unique features that people have questioned, and we’re surprised they’ve noticed.

An arborist onsite―We’re used to seeing arborists working on living trees, cutting them down for the health and safety of people, surrounding buildings or the tree itself. However, it is not common to see an arborist at a construction site.

As Living Pā piling works continue you may notice an arborist scaling up and cutting the timber driven piles to length. These offcuts are sent to a Pāuatahanui mill to be turned into half rounds that are then returned to the site as lagging for retaining walls.

A clean site― Often sites where timber piling occurs are filled with open ground and mud. When the pile holes are drilled the dirt emerges from the ground, and when it rains the site becomes muddy – often making tasks more difficult.  On the Living Pā site approximately 90%+ of our piles are ground driven, meaning fewer holes are driven, less dirt and mud, and the site is uncommonly clean and tidy.

Many skips—Traditionally construction sites have one ‘landfill skip’ that everything goes into. You may not have noticed, there are at least four skips at the Living Pā site that support a range of waste diversion and recycling strategies.

Machinery rotating on and off site – You may see machinery going offsite then returning back to site shortly after. This is dictated by the very constrained site and large quantum of timber piles that are being installed in the ground (or being stored) limiting workable area.