Geovert

13/10/2026

Geovert's soil nailing and shotcrete works on the SH29 Ōmanawa Bridge Replacement in Tauranga have been completed, delivered for HEB Construction as part of the Tauriko West - Tupenga Road of National Significance for NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi.

The scope covered close to 800 metres of double corrosion protection anchors and around 2,000 metres of soil nails, supporting the bridge abutment and the road embankment above the Omanawa River. The 7 metre anchors were assembled as a single piece on scaffolding erected on site, rather than pieced together in the ground, so the grout column could be poured vertically, reducing the risk of voids or air pockets in the corrosion protection. Once assembled, each anchor was hoisted into its pre-drilled position. Drilling ran on both sides of the site at once, with the team switching drill mast fittings between locations to keep pace with the wider programme.

Great effort from the Geovert NZ team coordinating works around a live road, river crossing and busy site with multiple other contractors.

11/10/2026

Our 25th anniversary celebrations kicked off in New Zealand last week, the country where it all started back in 2001.

Getting the crew together is easier said than done when everyone’s spread across multiple project sites, so thanks to the Mt Messenger team and our Auckland and Penlink crews for hosting. Members of our Senior Leadership team made the trip over from Sydney, with other crew travelling from locations all over New Zealand to join the celebrations.

The Mt Messenger crew also got a nice surprise, with the Te Ara o Te Ata Mt Messenger Alliance presenting the team with a commemorative gift and some kind words on Geovert’s stellar performance throughout this challenging project. Not a bad way to start the party!

Next stop, Australia, with plenty more celebrations to come!

08/10/2026

We're continuing our look back on projects that shaped the business over the last 25 years, and not every milestone sits in Geovert's geotechnical history. In 2006, Geovert introduced rope access to Alcan (now part of Rio Tinto) at the Gove Alumina Refinery in the Northern Territory, as a way of carrying out inspection and major maintenance work inside the refinery's bauxite precipitation tanks. The pH 14 hot liquor used to process the bauxite ore caused stress corrosion cracking in the welds, with the potential for catastrophic failure. The methods Geovert developed to deliver this work at Gove went on to transform how major maintenance was carried out in bauxite refineries across Australia.

The tanks stood at over 30 metres high and the defects that needed repairing (including weld cracking identified through inspection) sat inside them. The conventional approach was scaffolding, which was very slow, with access alone taking close to 1,000 man hours to erect, inspect and dismantle. By placing NDT technicians or boilermakers in the tanks to carry out inspections and repairs using rope access, the total time for the same inspection came down to just 30 hours.

The scope grew from there, with Geovert going on to perform stress corrosion cracking repairs across 40 bauxite precipitation tanks at Gove, each 35 by 12 metres. The work involved magnetic particle inspection, ultrasonic inspection, thickness testing and major repair works with flux core single-sided butt welds up to 20 millimetres, all delivered by our rope access crew.

04/10/2026

We're back in the US, at a limestone mine in Nebraska, where the Geovert team delivered design and construction stabilisation around an underground mine portal.

Our scope covered scaling and devegetation of the walls above the existing portal canopies as well as targeted stabilisation of the surrounding rock face. Hand scaling cleared loose rock and debris from the canopy before anchor installation began using Geovert's award winning High Reach Drill (HRD). Anchors were drilled using continuous air flush and grouted, then confirmed through a verification test anchor and proof testing. Steel mesh and reinforcing bars followed, tied into the anchor heads, before wet mix shotcrete was applied from an elevated work platform.

Using a combination of rope access, the HRD, and elevated work platforms, the team was able to work around the existing portal structure without disrupting the mine's dump truck movements below. Great work from our US crew! 👏

29/09/2026

We continue to reflect on the significant projects in our 25-year history, and this is one of the first major civil projects we delivered in Australia - rockfall protection works above Lawrence Hargrave Drive on what would become the Seacliff Bridge north of Wollongong.

Geovert's scope was rockfall protection on cliff faces exceeding 70 metres in height, adjacent to the site of the new bridge. Over 18 months, the team drilled and installed 3,000 linear metres of rock bolts and 5,000 square metres of mesh, applied 1,000 square metres of shotcrete, and used drill and blast methods to remove unstable rock from the cliff face.

The work required rock bolting with wagon drills directly on the exposed cliff face above the road at the northern abutment, in the zone where the bridge deck would later be launched into position. WorkCover challenged the techniques at the time, as nothing quite like it had been done before in Australia. Geovert worked through the challenge and completed the works, earning a substantial safety bonus from the LHD Link Alliance.

Working from the top of the cliff down, using rope access and wagon drills, removed the need for a crane on the road below. That allowed the bridge deck's progressive launch to go ahead earlier than planned, saving three months on the alliance's critical path, a saving worth more to the alliance than Geovert's entire cost of works on the project.

The project was competitively bid and awarded on methodology and cost. After award, Geovert and the LHD Link Alliance's senior leadership agreed to convert the arrangement into what became the first geotechnical sub-alliance in New South Wales.

22/09/2026

As part of Geovert's 25th anniversary, we're looking back at some of the landmark projects that shaped the company, and to start we are going back almost to the beginning.

Twenty-one years ago, Geovert brought New Zealand's first tracked production soil nailing rigs into the country. The occasion was the SH20 Mt Roskill Extension in Auckland, a $186 million, four-lane motorway extension that went on to become the country's largest soil nailing project. At the time, Geovert was still a young company without the equipment range it operates today.

Geovert was engaged as a subcontractor to Fulton Hogan, delivering all ground engineering works on the project: soil nailing, slope stabilisation, structural retaining walls and drainage drilling. Across retaining walls RW54, 23, 25 and 28, the scope came to 35,000 linear metres of soil nails, 1,000 linear metres of horizontal bored drains, 7,000 square metres of eco cell slope treatment and 2,000 square metres of reinforced shotcrete, delivered over 15 months.

The real risk to the programme was Auckland's weather. Earthworks on a project of this scale are constrained by the region's frequent rain and any delay to the season threatened the timeline for Fulton Hogan and Transit New Zealand. Geovert and Fulton Hogan's project manager, Duncan Gibb, identified this risk early and partnered with us six months ahead of project start, giving Geovert the lead time to import the specialist rigs the job needed rather than working within the limits of equipment already in the country and the result was an entire earthworks season saved.

More than two decades on, it's a project worth remembering for both its scale and how early in Geovert's history it happened.

16/09/2026

We won! Geovert has taken out Engineering Success of the Year at the 2026 Australian Mining Prospect Awards, for the High Reach Drill (HRD).

What a night! Huge congratulations to everyone who has been involved in the development and deployment of the HRD - we couldn't be more proud of this team.

We will share more from the night soon!

15/09/2026

Twenty-five years ago, Geovert started with two people, a Hilti drill and a garage in Wanaka. Today it's a 400-strong business working across Australia, New Zealand, North America and the Pacific.

We sat down with founder and CEO Anthony Teen to talk about where it started, what he's learned, and where the business is headed next. https://ow.ly/mEWn50ZNE1c

This is the first of several stories marking Geovert's 25th anniversary, with more on our landmark projects and the people behind them still to come.

From a garage in Wanaka to a 400-strong business across Australia, NZ, North America and the Pacific. Anthony Teen reflects on 25 years of Geovert.

13/09/2026

Geovert was engaged for slope remediation on a section of road in Wellington that had been impacted by a landslide. Managing the project from initial planning through to completion enabled us to work closely with the client Wellington City Council, providing a single point of accountability across every stage of the works.

The works involved drilling anchors into the slope and building a shotcrete and mesh retaining wall. Overhead power lines next to the slope meant standard drilling access wasn't possible, so the team erected a scaffold platform and carried out the drilling and shotcreting safely beneath the lines. A contraflow plan and a temporary pedestrian detour kept disruption to a minimum on a road that carries heavy daily traffic.

The project was managed by our expert Wellington crew, completed on time and within budget. Nicely done, Geovert NZ!

09/09/2026

R U OK? Day is recognised across Australia today, bringing mental health awareness to front of mind. It's a reminder to ask the people around you how they're doing, listen to what they say and offer support without judgement.

For us at Geovert that could be a conversation on site, a coffee before a shift starts, or perhaps asking someone a second time because the first answer didn't sound quite right.

Take the time to check in with someone at home or at work today - and everyday. As the charity put it themselves, 'a conversation could change a life.'

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