In three short years, CKL’s transport team has grown from one transportation engineering manager to a team of six spread across three North Island office locations.
Transportation Engineering Manager Judith Makinson, who became CKL’s first transport team employee in 2018, said the growth began steadily but has recently become more rapid with three team members joining in 2021 alone.
“It’s especially exciting to see the expertise advance alongside our staff numbers. Notably, this year we employed our first transportation planner alongside our team of transportation engineers. We’re proud to have expanded in this way and, in doing so, built a very holistic team,” she said.
The engineers on the team are generally responsible for assessing the traffic effects at an individual development level; meanwhile transportation planner Mark Haseley brings a strategic overview by planning future transportation networks at a strategic level, with expertise in the public sector.
Mark joined the company in 2021 to grow its transport planning capability and provide more support to the public sector. He’s worked across the full transport planning spectrum - from national transport strategies, urban and regional transport programmes, as well as business cases to improve safety, support mode shift and improve resilience on major transport corridors in New Zealand.
Judith says that by having both unique skillsets on the team – engineers and planners – CKL readily covers the wide range of transport needs its diverse clients have.
“With our team’s strong expertise across both the private and public sectors, we’re expanding beyond our core development planning business to also work in the public sector on transport strategies, projects and business cases.
“Already, we’ve worked with South Waikato District Council on the implications of removing minimum parking standards in Tokoroa, the University of Waikato on its masterplans for growth, and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council on new public transport initiatives like demand-responsive transport and passenger ferries.
“Now that we’ve grown, and continue to grow, location is no object either. The benefit of our team being based in Hamilton, Auckland and Tauranga, is that we can – and do – easily service clients from each region and further afield across New Zealand,” she said.
Together the team of six bring decades of experience in the transportation industry, with their specific skills varying widely.
As team manager, Judith works in the Hamilton office and has more than 20 years’ experience in both public and private sector developments. “I have a strong technical background preparing integrated transportation assessments, travel plans and feasibility studies for developments as well as developing transport masterplans. I also regularly act as an expert witness and have been enjoying my recent experience as an Independent Hearing Commissioner.”
Joining her in the Hamilton office are transportation engineers Lindsay Boltman and Mike Clapp who joined CKL this year. “Mike brings with him a wealth of experience in assessment and design; he’s well-versed in the preparation of road safety audits, having completed the Safe Systems Course and led a team assessing multiple black spot sites within the Hauraki District,” Judith said.
Senior transportation engineer Michael Hall works in Auckland, assisting Judith in managing the team. With a strong background in transportation assessment, he also has unique experience using transportation modelling software Aimsun.
Junior transportation engineer Ethan Yu, on the Auckland team, joined as a graduate two years ago. “He does a lot of intersection modelling with SIDRA software and he's really developing his assessment capabilities. He has amazing enthusiasm for what he does and is always willing to learn new things,” Judith said.
The growing team continues to take-on varied and interesting projects. A recent highlight is Lockerbie Estate in Morrinsville; a residential subdivision that will bring approximately 1,200 homes and additional community facilities to the small town, once completed.
“We have been widely involved with this project over the past 2 years. Ultimately we are there to think about the movement strategies, including walking and cycling routes, to maximise potential for sustainable transport and active travel options,” Judith said.
The CKL transport team has also successfully worked with commercial and residential property development company Stark Property on numerous projects including the new Regional Council office, Hills Village, Tūāpapa, MADE of Hamilton East and the NZ Blood building.
Judith said as the team continues to grow over time, CKL’s values of excellence, integrity and being people focused will remain at the core.
“Excellence will always come through in the skills and service we offer our clients; integrity in the way we carry ourselves as individuals and as a company; and being people focussed, we hope our staff and clients can both attest to that.
“I look forward to seeing our team continue to expand as time goes on, and our values remain the same no matter our size,” she said.
