Building the Backbone of Regional Connectivity

Designed and delivered entirely in-house, the Otorohanga to Piopio project forms a critical part of Entelar Group’s strategic infrastructure rollout through the King country, delivering high-performance fibre backbone capability to support current and long-term telecommunications demand across the region.

The 45km route follows a carefully engineered alignment designed to optimise installation efficiency, minimise corridor disruption, and maintain safe separation from existing utilities. Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) was the primary installation method throughout, enabling precise underground duct placement without extensive surface excavation.

A key feature of the project was its co-build structure – laying multiple ducts for multiple network owners in a single pass. Each duct is a plastic pipe containing multiple sub-tubes, giving network operators the ability to blow separate fibre cables through the same conduit.

Rather than different owners commissioning separate builds at separate cost, Entelar Group coordinated the installation so multiple parties benefited from a single civil operation – sharing the cost of the most expensive part of the process: breaking the ground.

“When we’re already on the ground for one network owner, we pull multiple ducts in the same pass,” says Du Preez. “Once, not twice. That’s the economy of scale – and it’s what makes these projects viable, because the cost isn’t sitting with just one party.” It’s an approach he sees gaining traction. “Network owners used to commission this work separately. That’s changing – they want to leverage the efficiency of doing it together, and that’s something we’re well placed to facilitate.”

Ground quality across the corridor proved variable, requiring adaptive drilling techniques and careful production planning. HDD’s particular strength in variable conditions allowed teams to maintain consistent progress without compromising installation accuracy or safety standards.

On the quality and safety front, the project achieved high-standard duct integrity test results throughout and zero lost-time injuries. All traffic management plans were prepared and secured by Entelar Group’s in-house traffic management designers. For specialist activities such as bridge attachments, trusted external partners operated under Entelar Group’s QA and PMO governance.

The result was a projected delivered on time and within budget, with zero surprises – the natural outcome of a team that controls every variable it can.

A geologically challenging 6km build through mixed rock and compacted substrate in Hawke’s Bay, this project is a vivid example of Entelar Group’s ability to adapt methodology in real time – maintaining production throughput and quality standards despite conditions that ruled out a single-method approach.

The build delivered 6,000 metres of 7-way microduct along an optimised alignment, hauling through existing infrastructure that had been pre-installed for future use – significantly reducing the civil cost and time compared to a full greenfield build. Three complementary installation methods were deployed across the route depending on local ground conditions: HDD in sections requiring minimal ground disturbance, open trenching where soil composition and access supported efficient excavation, and rock breaking in hard-ground sections with rock outcrops or highly compacted substrates.

The corridor presented significant challenges including mixed geology and high-resistance rock layers. Teams responded with pre-excavation probing and utility detection, adjusted HDD drilling parameters, strategic rock breaker deployment, and careful spoil handling compliant with corridor standards.

All microduct alignments, depths, bends, and connections were captured using GPS-enabled workflows, ensuring accurate and auditable as-built documentation. Full duct integrity and pressure testing validated continuity throughout. The project achieved zero lost-time injuries – underpinned by daily pre-start hazard identification, strict exclusion zone controls around machinery and excavation sites, and robust utility strike prevention practices including locates and potholing.

Both projects reflect an integrated delivery model – and one that sets Entelar Group apart in the market.

“What makes us unique is we use our own teams,” says Du Preez. “Most network owners in New Zealand subcontract the work out – they don’t have dedicated teams to do it. We do. We are uniquely placed in this space. Our competitors make use of third-party contractors. They don’t have what we have.”

That distinction has a direct bearing on cost and schedule. “We are in total control of our costs. And because traffic management is in-house, when we give clients a timeline, we are much more in control of that timeline – because all the resources working towards that end goal are Entelar Group focused.”

The experience of the field teams underpins everything else. A project of this scale involves around 26 Entelar Group staff – field crews, project managers, traffic management designers, and a dedicated programme manager overseeing delivery across multiple simultaneous projects.

Behind them sits a support infrastructure most competitors don’t carry: in-house fleet management, accommodation logistics for teams working away from home on rotation, equipment calibration, and training.

Ultimately, the result of all of that planning, experience and effort is infrastructure that, by design, disappears into the landscape.

“There’s always a sense of awe in what the guys achieve,” says Du Preez. “You drive past and the road looks exactly the same as it did before. But underneath it, everything’s changed.”

“We’re making New Zealand a better place. That’s what we do.”

For Entelar Group, completing a build is not the end of the relationship.

“We build the network, and we’d like it to stay untouched and just work in perpetuity,” says Du Preez. “But that’s not reality – people work around your services and things do go wrong. When that happens, we’re here to help. We have a national footprint of resources, 24/7. It doesn’t matter where it happens – if something goes wrong with a fibre network, we’re there.”

That continuity of ownership is also a practical advantage. When the team that built the network is the same team maintaining it, nothing gets lost in translation. Every bore path, every junction, every decision made in the field is known.

“Because we built it, we know where we’ve been,” says Du Preez. “Every junction, every bore, every call we made on the ground — it’s all known. That’s not something you can hand over in a document. When something goes wrong, we’re not piecing it together. We already know the story.”

That continuity of ownership – from first dig to long-term maintenance – is, in the end, what these projects are really about. The fibre running beneath these corridors will carry communications for decades, connecting communities and enabling mobile coverage in places that previously had none. The backbone that every call, message, and data transfer depends on. Built once. Looked after for good.