Social Innovation

Social innovation is the concept of adding new practices into the workforce that better meet the needs of our communities.

The procurement process is how the project engages businesses to provide supplies, labour and subcontract resources. 

The City Rail Link will cost $5.493 billion to build, a significant investment in infrastructure and into the economy.

The investment provides opportunities for the project to encourage social innovation by increasing diversity in the supply chain through procurement, by doing so, realising our commitment to Aotearoa New Zealand’s founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi.

To encourage social innovation and add diversity, Link Alliance actively engages Māori and Pacific Peoples owned small and medium sized businesses and supports them throughout the traditional procurement process. You can see the process in the graphic below.

The results of social innovation and a more diverse procurement process are significant; increased contributions towards Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Aotearoa New Zealand’s economic success, and quality employment and business ownership opportunities for Māori and Pacific Peoples. The practice helps keep investment within the motu (country) and supports the lives of New Zealanders for generations to come.

If your business, or a business you know, might qualify and benefit from this programme, please email social.outcomes@linkalliance.co.nz

Procurement Partner: Amotai

City Rail Link is a member of Amotai, Aotearoa's supplier diversity intermediary tasked with connecting Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses with buyers wanting to purchase goods, services and works.

Amotai verifies Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses and holds a national database of Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses that are ready for work and provides practical advice and support to CRL Ltd and Link Alliance so both parties can successfully engage with more Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses.

Steadfast Scaffolding

Steadfast Scaffolding are a longstanding subcontractor for Link Alliance. Up to seven Steadfast Scaffolding staff work each day across both Karangahape precinct sites and within the site’s mined tunnels.

The opportunity has provided Steadfast Scaffolding new growth through commercial exposure, staff expansion and night shift which is a new experience for the company.

Turbostaff

Turbostaff have been a labour hire partner with the Link Alliance since 2020 and have over 50 staff placed on the City Rail Link project.

Through the partnership, Turbostaff are able to closely understand the project’s requirements and culture, enabling them to place the best people for the job.

Clayton Badland says the project’s health and safety focus means Turbostaff are confident that their people are able to return home safely at the end of each day.

“We constantly receive positive feedback from our people as to the experiences they have had with Link Alliance, especially during the COVID pandemic. The steps Link Alliance took to look after people during the lockdowns resonated very strongly, but also the support that our people receive on site in terms of access to regular testing, vaccinations and the steps taken to ensure their safety onsite through physical distancing has eased any fears about returning to site.

We are humbled by the fact that we have been able to support such an important and iconic project for Auckland. It has allowed us to drive social outcomes initiatives and provide amazing opportunities for many of our Māori and Pacific Peoples workers, whose careers will benefit from the experience they are gaining on this project. 

“We are proud to be a supplier of labour to the project and look forward to working together in the future.”

Ian Howe Concrete Pumps Ltd

Concrete pumps have revolutionised the traditional concrete pour. Ian Howe, owner of Ian Howe Concrete Pumps Ltd, has four decades experience in concrete, with much of the last seven years spent working on City Rail Link. Ian pumped concrete into the Chief Post Office building when the first works on  Contract 1 were happening.

Ian Howe Concrete Pumps now has up to 26 staff working across three sites at City Rail Link: Maungawhau Station, Te Waihorotiu Station and Waitematā Station (Britomart).

“What concrete pumps give to the industry is the ability to move huge amounts of concrete really fast to designated areas you can't access with a truck. It makes it easier to place concrete because we can get it level as we move the boom around and we can pour the concrete exactly where they want it,” says Ian.

To meet the technical demands of working underground, within tunnels and at the scale required for the project, five innovative new machines were purchased that had never been used in Aotearoa.  Significant experience is required to use the boom pumps used on City Rail Link.  Ian and Harriet Howe are a part of a working group that are looking at setting up a New Zealand concrete pumping qualification.

The technical and practical knowledge gained on this project will flow on to provide benefits to other contracts.

Martinus

In late 2020 Martinus Rail was awarded the supply, installation and commissioning of track and overhead wiring contract for City Rail Link. Martinus Rail has a reputation as the go-to company for complex track and overhead wiring solutions, special trackwork and signaling solutions.

Martinus Rail’s focus on complex rail infrastructure construction projects and City Rail Link has enabled them to introduce a couple of innovative measures: The use of a Zephir (shunting machine) and TLPS (track laying points system), as well as developing a programme with KiwiRail and CRL Ltd to reconfigure the Waitematā Station (Britomart) tunnel within tight time constraints.

As part of the works, Martinus Rail will supply and install all the rail, slab track, ballasted track, rigid overhead conductor bar and overhead line equipment works between Waitematā and Maungawhau Stations.

The Martinus Rail team working on the CRL will at its peak include more than 250 workers and General Manager Murray Simon says that approximately 67% of their workforce are Māori or Pacific Peoples.

Martinus Rail is working to build a reputation as a company that cares for people. When Martinus Rail put forward a tender bid to CRL Ltd, they also submitted a draft Social Impact Management Plan outlining how they would be creating positive change for the local people.

Implementation of this plan has included:

• A commitment to First Foundation - signing up to support three rangatahi through their tertiary journey, including payment of fees, providing a mentor, as well as work over the summer holidays

• Connecting with Tupu Toa to source summer interns

• Working to improve NZ apprenticeship qualifications so that they are more relevant and recognisable on a world scale

• Using their awareness of the power of social procurement to engage several Māori or Pacific Peoples owned businesses to help deliver the works.

CRL Ltd and Link Alliance have four social impact target areas: employment, training, social procurement, and future workforce. Martinus are delivering on each of these.

Education Unlimited

Tina Rose, the founder of Education Unlimited (EU), has provided training for the City Rail Link Progressive Employment Programme interns (PEP) since inception in 2019.

Education Unlimited deliver tailor made workplace training with clear outcomes but with the agility to adapt to an individual or cohort’s specific needs.

Tina said what she loved was that “the PEP is about individuals and growing the capability and confidence of the rangatahi to get a career and a real opportunity to try something they had never heard of before, and maybe would never have had the opportunity, if not for the PEP”. She identifies ‘soft skills’ as “the critical skills that enable us to be the best we can be”.

Workshops delivered include “Understanding Your Contract” - to ensure rangatahi know what they were signing – and . “Write Up, Speak Up, Be Safe” - to help people understand Health and Safety requirements onsite, such as completing an incident report and building their confidence to speak up. This and other elements covering numeracy are offered to the interns as a micro credential in collaboration with Otago Polytechnic.

Education Unlimited’s whakatauki “Mā te mahitahi, ka tipu te mātauranga, mā te mātauranga ka tipu hei tāngata” (Through working as one, there is growth in knowledge, from that knowledge people grow) is visible across CRL Ltd, Link Alliance, Education Unlimited and especially the PEP rangatahi.

New Zealand’s Procurement Excellence Forum awards

Our commitment to leave the city a better place when the CRL work is completed has been recognised three times over by New Zealand’s Procurement Excellence Forum. 

In 2023, CRL swept up the Forum’s Supreme Award and also added the Forum’s Social Impact and Environmental Impact Awards to the project’s trophy cabinet.