The specialist Italian workforce building Auckland's 1.2 billion dollar Central Interceptor have met with unexpected hardships in the past year.

When Ghella Abergeldie won the contract to build a new waste water pipe for Auckland, they expected it would be just another day in the office. But then the global pandemic struck.

Ghella Abergeldie JV won the contract to build Auckland's Central Interceptor. A $1.2 billion wastewater pipe, the biggest in the country.

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According to the Watercare website, the Ghella Abergeldie joint venture has more than 150 years of experience with tunneling and wastewater projects.

Jonathan Bordogna (left) and Stefano Vittor try to explain what it's been like living in New Zealand while the coronavirus rampages through Italy.

Stefano Vittor, the project's Construction Manager, said when you have worked on sites during northern European winters, New Zealand is a pretty easy environment by comparison.

But no one could have prepared for the global Covid-19 pandemic. In terms of this project, it has meant some staff have been separated from their families.

Stefano is from Gorizia in the north of Italy, on the Slovenian border.

Stefano's wife was due to come out at the beginning of 2020 but was delayed and then the borders closed. They have spent the last several months going through the process of applying for exemptions.

Stefano is planning a trip home for Christmas, but by the time he sees his wife they will have been apart for a year. It has meant they spent their 24th wedding anniversary apart.

"We organised in a way that I was taking my dinner very late and she was taking her lunch," said Stefano, "She had a bottle of champagne and I had my bottle of champagne."

Stefano missed his 24th wedding anniversary to oversee the construction, including this 30m deep pit.

And while Jonathan Bordogna, the project's Administration and Finance Manager, has his wife and two daughters here in New Zealand. He still has family and friends back in Italy.

"I was born in New York, but my Dad is from Bergamo so that was the (place of the) original onset of Covid in Italy," he said, "Back in Bergamo, when the virus was very rampant, two brothers, up in age, were basically set aside because the ventilators had to go to someone else. Not good stories."

Jonathan's parents have retired to the coast, a town on the tip of Tuscany. His mother has underlying health conditions, "so she has been locked, basically, in the house for the last six months."…

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