Your expert guide for tunnelling and trenchless success.

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

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

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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 — and the next project carries the same scar tissue.

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.

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.

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

The tunnelling and trenchless market needs an independent specialist advisor — one who has actually built the work — sitting alongside owners and design teams before the design locks, framing options early, red-flagging the ground baseline, and pressure-testing the scheme before it goes to market.

THE NEED

Not an academic. Not a generalist. Not a contractor with skin in the bid. An independent voice with the scars to back the call.

THE SOLUTION

HarkerWize. Built from the tunnel face up.

Forty years of hands-on tunnelling and trenchless delivery — now an independent advisor for the teams shaping the project. We're not bidding the work. We're making sure the work can be bid, built, and defended.

We plug in where influence is highest: pre-feasibility, concept, and the early design gates. We bring builder's instinct into owner teams and design teams across all trenchless methods — tunnelling, microtunnelling, pipe rehabilitation, HDD, guided boring, shaft construction.

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 ↓

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

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.

Explore Digital Solutions →

THE STAKES

Without HarkerWize

  • Concept locks before trenchless options are properly explored.
  • Ground baselines stay thin. Contractors price the gap.
  • ECI eats the programme.
  • Claims arrive. Margin disappears.
  • Confidence in the scheme drops — and in the next one.

With HarkerWize

  • 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.
  • Schemes go to market with cost confidence the funder accepts.
  • Delivery runs cleaner. The team you trust grows.

Two paths. One choice.

THE CALL

If any of this sounds familiar, HarkerWize is the right call.

If you're running optioneering inside a team that doesn't have deep trenchless expertise — HarkerWize is the right call.
If you're needing contractor ECI level advice without the inherent construction & capability bias — HarkerWize is the right call.
If you're tired of writing ground baselines that won't survive a contractor's red pen — HarkerWize is the right call.
If you're frustrated by slow concept-stage decisions that compress every downstream programme — HarkerWize is the right call.
If you're an asset owner with a scheme that needs to reach a fundable, buildable outcome - HarkerWize is the right call.
If you're done watching margin disappear into ECI redesign and method-driven claims — HarkerWize is the right call.
If you want a specialist who knows what 3910, 3916, NEC and FIDIC actually do to trenchless risk — HarkerWize is the right call.
If you want method, risk and cost shortlisted from minimal inputs in an afternoon — TrenchlessIQ is built and waiting.
If you want every project answer linked back to its source memo, drawing or document — the AI-Enabled Platform does that today.

One conversation is usually enough to know whether we're a fit.

THE OUTCOME

  • …move into delivery with options that were properly tested at concept stage.
  • …defend baselines that hold under audit and contractor pressure.
  • …remove months of programme risk before tender.
  • …protect margin instead of chasing it through claims.
  • …bring builder's instinct into the team — and the project feels the difference.
  • …turn scattered project data into traceable, defensible answers in minutes, not weeks.
  • …lead the whole-life carbon conversation instead of reacting to it.
  • …show up at the design gate with options nobody else saw.

Because you use HarkerWize, you…

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

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Email Mike directly →

Mike Harker · HarkerWize

mike@harkerwize.co.nz