The Warkworth to Te Hana segment is the first section of the wider Northland Corridor — a 100km strategic route linking Auckland and Whangārei. This stage will deliver around 26km of four-lane expressway, connecting Warkworth to the Puhoi–Warkworth motorway, bypassing Wellsford and Te Hana, and providing major new interchanges at each of these locations.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is procuring the project as a PPP, with international consortia to be shortlisted and a preferred bidder expected in early 2026.

Once complete, the corridor will offer a safer and more reliable travel option, improve freight efficiency, reduce travel times and divert traffic away from congested town centres. It will support Northland’s regional growth and strengthen connections to Auckland’s supply chain.

Services Provided

North was engaged to provide full Lenders’ Technical Advisor services throughout the bid cycle. Our role included detailed technical and commercial due diligence of the SPV’s design, construction methodology, program, maintenance and operations strategy, cost estimates and risk approach. We reviewed geotechnical assumptions, staging and constructability, validated whole-of-life maintenance strategies, and assessed compliance with Waka Kotahi requirements, including the payment mechanism.

As part of our engagement, we delivered rolling risk assessments, lender-facing reports, issue tracking, program verification and commercial sensitivity testing, ensuring financiers had a clear and accurate view of the project’s bankability.

Our involvement helped materially de-risk the SPV’s bid by identifying early gaps in design maturity, program logic and M&O costing that could have affected lender confidence at financial close. We supported the client with robust cost estimates, alignment of commercial positions across partners, and strengthened the technical credibility of the overall solution.

By providing disciplined, transparent and consistent advice to lenders, we improved certainty around delivery risks, lifecycle performance and long-term operational obligations—ultimately strengthening the SPV’s investment case and supporting a more resilient, defensible and financeable bid submitted to Waka Kotahi.