Expert Guidance for Successful Infrastructure Projects

Led by two-time CCNZ award winner. 40 years at the tunnel face. Fully independent

"Trenchless cost blowouts aren't bad luck. They're baked in at concept stage."

UNDERGROUND INTELLIGENCE

The damage isn't done on site. It's done at the front end — when the right options were never on the table and the baseline was already too thin to defend.

You already know the pattern.

A scheme goes to tender with a method that "should work." Geotech is patchy, so the contractor prices the gap. ECI begins, redesign follows, the programme slips. A claim lands. Then another. Margin's gone before anyone has broken ground.

This isn't a one-off. It's a structural gap in how trenchless work gets framed, scoped, and priced. The same five failure points show up project after project.

01

Narrow options

Opportunity left on the table at concept stage.

02

Fuzzy constructability

ECI bias drives redesign and delay.

03

Geotech baseline gaps

Patchy GI weakens cost confidence.

04

Slow optioneering

Margins compress, programmes slip.

05

Contract complexity

3910 / 3916 / NEC / FIDIC amplify claims and method risk.

Every one of these is a margin-killer. Every one is fixable - but only if someone with a builder's instinct gets in early.

Forty years of hands-on trenchless delivery, now sitting on your side of the table. Not an academic. Not a generalist. Not a contractor with skin in the bid. We're not bidding the work - we're making sure it can be bid, built, and defended.

THE SOLUTION

HarkerWize. Built from the tunnel face up.

We plug in where influence is highest: pre-feasibility, concept, and the early design gates - across every trenchless method, from microtunnelling to shaft construction.

"We simplify the complex, so you can move forward with certainty."

PILLAR 01

Feasibility & Strategy

Make the right call before the design locks.

PILLAR 02

Design & Planning Support

Embed buildability before it's expensive to add.

PILLAR 03

Procurement & Delivery

Buy the right capability. Hold the contract together.

PILLAR 04

Digital Access & Project Intelligence

Decision-support products. See spotlight below ↓

WHAT WE DO

Compatible with NZS 3910 / 3916, NEC and FIDIC. We work the way your project is already structured.

DIGITAL ACCESS

Three products. One purpose: faster, smarter decisions.

Tools that complement, not replace, expert advice. Built from forty years of project experience - codified, so your team can use it on demand.

Planner

Method shortlist, risk, cost, CO₂e - in an afternoon.

Monte Carlo

P10 / P50 / P90 numbers funders accept.

AI-Enabled Platform

Project knowledge, sourced and audit-ready, in Teams.

THE STAKES

Both paths leave the same concept gate. One climbs. One slides. The fork is set before anyone breaks ground.

The concept gate

With HarkerWize

The path that climbs.

Options surfaced early — including ones nobody saw.
Risk-by-chainage mapped and red-flagged before tender.
Constructability resolved at the gate where it costs least.
Method and equipment chosen on merit — no kit to keep busy, no bias to unwind.
Schemes go to market with cost confidence the funder accepts.
Delivery runs cleaner. The team you trust grows.

Without HarkerWize

The path that slides.

Concept locks before trenchless options are properly explored.
Ground baselines stay thin. Contractors price the gap.
ECI eats the programme.
Contractor-led design bakes in bias before anyone notices.
Claims arrive. Margin disappears.
Confidence in the scheme drops — and in the next one.

Two paths. One choice.

THE CALL

If this sounds like your project, let’s talk.

You stop firefighting trenchless risk. You start designing it out. That's the work. That's what HarkerWize is for.

Mike Harker · HarkerWize

mike@harkerwize.co.nz