Woods was a founding member of LEAD Alliance, an alliance of companies created to help rebuild social housing across Auckland and provide land to make homes more liveable for Kiwi families to thrive and grow.

Our role

Woods provided engineering, surveying, GIS, and planning services as part of LEAD Alliance — a collaboration formed to accelerate the delivery of social housing for Kāinga Ora across nine Auckland neighbourhoods. The programme involved removing 10,000 aging state houses and preparing the land and infrastructure for around 40,000 new homes — all within 52 square kilometres of urban Auckland.

As part of the design consortium (alongside Harrison Grierson and Tonkin & Taylor), Woods played a critical role in understanding site constraints, planning infrastructure upgrades, and ensuring new works integrated safely and seamlessly into existing communities.

Our involvement spanned everything from design coordination and consenting to on-the-ground delivery. We were tasked with navigating aging infrastructure, fragmented land parcels, and live neighbourhoods — all while keeping services running, communities informed, and construction progressing at scale.

Before LEAD Alliance formally began, Woods had already spent two years working alongside Housing New Zealand, delivering enabling infrastructure and piloting innovative approaches — including dual-purpose stormwater parks and fast-tracked consenting frameworks. That experience helped shape the LEAD Alliance delivery model and brought valuable lessons into the programme.

Key Challenges

Delivering infrastructure within live, established communities has presented several significant challenges:

Aging infrastructure: Many of the existing water, wastewater, and stormwater systems were outdated and inadequate for modern demands. Upgrading these systems required careful planning to minimise disruptions to residents.

Ground conditions: Projects like the Taniwha Reserve redevelopment involved working through wet conditions; managing contaminated materials; and collaborating with archaeologists and environmental specialists.

Community engagement: Maintaining open lines of communication with residents was been crucial. The alliance implemented robust community liaison strategies to keep locals informed and involved throughout the construction process.

Complex coordination: The scale of the project, spanning multiple neighborhoods, required meticulous coordination among various stakeholders, including local councils, utility providers, and community groups.

Outcomes 

The LEAD Alliance work has been transformational. With every stage completed, Woods has seen the direct impact: from damp, deteriorating homes to healthy, modern housing that gives families a new start. For our team, this isn’t just technical work – it’s deeply personal. Some of our people have lived in state housing themselves, and that connection reinforces the importance of what we’re here to achieve.

We’ve helped keep communities functioning while construction happens around them — making sure power stays on, kids get to school safely, and families feel informed and respected through the process. We’ve also contributed to better planning integration, ensuring things like parks, stormwater infrastructure, and housing all work together as part of a more holistic neighbourhood outcome.

LEAD Alliance was formed to unite government and industry under one roof – combining experience, speed, and shared values to deliver one of the most meaningful programmes in Aotearoa’s urban history. At Woods, we’re proud to have been part of this mission.