The Barber Grove project team in Wellington, New Zealand, hosted a barbeque to say 'thank you' to locals, southern-hemisphere style.

There has been sheet piling, generators, night works and lengthy driveway restrictions, so the smell of frying sausages was a welcome change to Barber Grove locals. A sausage sizzle is always a community (and project team) favourite, and a great way for the team to show appreciation for customers' patience.

Over 400 sausages were wrapped in bread and served up!  There was an open invitation to the neighbours around the project sites. Tamariki (children) and whanau (their families) from nearby Randwick Primary enjoyed the after-school sausage sizzle on their walk home. Residents who came along had incredibly positive feedback and overall, the street barbeque was a great success.

The team has been working hard to improve the wastewater network, duplicating a 1.2 km section of pipe by tunnelling a 700 metre tunnelled section and trenching the last 500 m. So it was rewarding for them to get a sausage and some positive feedback as they near the end of the project.

McConnell Dowell strives to build connections with the communities we work in and the classic Kiwi and Ozzie barbeque is a simple but effective way to show people we care. Customers don’t always have time to read newsletters so sometimes they don't know what we have done to minimise impacts and make the project less disruptive. An informal chat over some kai (food) is a tried and tested recipe for communicating with busy families.

Our customised McConnell Dowell branded barbecue trailer was built in Christchurch and has travelled around the city since 2013. It was transported up to Wellington for the Barber Grove project in 2022 and it will head up to Auckland in June - look out it may be coming to a project near you!

Find out more about the tunnelling underway at Barber Grove here.