INFRASTRUCTURE & ROADING

Turning complex engineering into clear communications.

Image: The Waimea Community Dam, completed in 2025.

Communicating the projects that shape our communities.

Major infrastructure and roading projects can change how people travel, work and live. They also involve complex technical information, and multiple stakeholders and communities that need timely, clear and useful updates.

Publik supports major infrastructure and roading projects with plain English content, meaningful design, media relations support, and community engagement and stakeholder events, to help people understand what is changing around them, and why.

From new water infrastructure, roads and bridges to storm-damaged transport networks, we help project teams explain the work, keep communities informed and bring the story to life.

Working on a big project? Get in touch!

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Image: The Opāoa River Bridge was blessed and opened on 28 November 2020.

Making complex projects better understood.

For more than a decade, Publik has worked alongside asset owners, councils, transport agencies and engineering consultants to plan and deliver communications that connect projects with the people affected by them. We turn the key elements of a project into clear, engaging stories, graphics and content.

One of our longest ongoing infrastructure clients is Waimea Water, the builder and operator of the Waimea Community Dam. We have worked on the dam project since construction started in 2019. Our work spans the breadth of communications – media relations, including organising media and stakeholder site tours, social media management, website development and management, and writing and producing annual, half yearly and quarterly reports. We also wrote and produced a book about the dam’s history and construction. We have since utilised our detailed understanding of water supply infrastructure for the Tukituki Water Security Project in Hawke’s Bay.

Following the devastating storms of 2021 and 2022, Publik worked in partnership with Marlborough District Council, and its engineering consultant team Stantec, to support community and stakeholder engagement for the Marlborough Sounds Future Access Study. We wrote the supporting engagement documents, produced communications material for public meetings, developed social media content and wrote newsletters to keep the community updated about the future of the transport network in the Sounds. Our media relations work included organising media tours of the roads and attendance at public events to help keep the public informed about access. In 2023, Marlborough District Council, Publik and Stantec team were very pleased to accept the Community Engagement category award at the Emergency Media and Public Affairs Awards.

If you are delivering a major infrastructure or roading project in New Zealand talk to us about utilising our understanding of projects and our services across public relations, communications, marketing, digital and design.

See below for examples of how we can help you, or jump straight to (just some of) our client work.

STRATEGIC PLANNING
Communications and engagement strategies to achieve your goals:
- Developing plans for stakeholder engagement, government relations, shareholder relations and more.
- Developing communications plans for a project’s construction journey, major announcements and milestones.
- Creating engagement plans to encourage stakeholders and communities to get involved in consultation processes.
- Planning for a crisis or issue and being your advisor during a crisis.
Pictured: The Waimea Community Dam in operation, 2025.
YOUR ONLINE FOOTPRINT
New website builds, refreshes and management:
- Building new websites and refreshing existing sites for improved user experiences.
- Ongoing site management and optimisation – content, technical maintenance and conversion improvements – to keep your site working hard for you.
- Providing SEO and AEO strategies to ensure you're found by traditional search and AI-driven search alike.
- Tracking analytics and conversions, so you always know what's actually working.
Pictured: Tukituki Water Security Project website.
GETTING SOCIAL
Proactive and reactive social media management:
- Developing social media plans and content, underpinned by strategic intent and an understanding of information needs.
- Monitoring Meta (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, YouTube and other social media accounts and assisting with timely responses to comments and community management.
- Planning, designing and producing cost-effective and strategic social media campaigns.
Pictured: Social media information tile for the Marlborough Sounds Future Access Study.
MEDIA RELATIONS AND TRAINING
Media coverage that is positive or balanced and tells your project’s story:
- Building relationships with reporters, writers and commentators to inform them and facilitate stories.
- Providing media relations support to project leads.
- Providing reactive responses to media on issues as they arise, in a fast-turnaround media environment.
- Providing one-off and regular media training for organisation or project spokespeople, to ensure they are ready to answer both the obvious and the tricky questions.
- Organising and accompanying media at site tours and official launches.
Pictured: Media tour of the storm-damaged Kenepuru Sounds roads in 2021.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Complex details turned into easy-to-understand visuals:
- Creating simple graphics that tell the story.
- Producing animated explainers for complex topics and projects.
- Producing and updating infographics and fact sheets.
- Producing information boards for public consultation events.
Pictured: Telling the region’s water story visually in the Marlborough District Council’s Local Water Done Well public engagement document .
PUBLICATIONS AND PRODUCTION
Professional print and digital products:
- Planning, writing and designing Annual Reports.
- Writing and designing public engagement documents.
- Writing sector award entries.
- Writing, editing and proof-reading project newsletters as part of coordinated content plans.
- Designing graphics to complement and simplify content.
Pictured: A Waimea Water Ltd Annual Report.
CRISIS AND ISSUES MANAGEMENT
Preparing you to be at your best, on your worst day:
- Preparing crisis communications plans aligning to the risks identified for your project or business.
- Being prepared means that you can bring your best, on your worst day, and prevent a crisis from creating deep reputational damage that lasts longer than the effects of the crisis event.
- Being on stand-by for our clients to support them through an emergency event or issue, around the clock.
- Freeing you up from media engagement or other requirements, allowing you to focus on leading your organisation and stakeholders through an event.
Pictured: Mike Scott , CEO Waimea Water, fielding One News’ questions about the rock issues at the dam site.
EVENT LOGISTICS AND COMMUNICATION
Gathering stakeholders and the public together:
- Organising central and local government site visits.
- Co-ordinating media on visits.
- Supporting public events with advertising and communications and media relations.
- Working with event teams on detailed event logistics.
- Hosting media at events.
Pictured: The official dawn opening of the Opāoa River Bridge, 2020.
VIDEOGRAPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Capturing the journey and scale of your project:
- Briefing videographers and photographers on visual storytelling needs.
- Attending video and photo days to guide capture.
- Guiding the video editing.
Pictured: Award-winning visual story-teller Tim Cuff on the Waimea Community Dam construction site.