Dr Luke Storie is an accomplished geotechnical engineer and design manager who has worked on complex and high profile projects since starting with Tonkin + Taylor in 2016.

Luke’s first major lead role was the design and management of the Quay Street Seismic Strengthening project, liaising with Auckland Transport, project managers, planners, and other specialists to work towards delivering the Downtown Infrastructure Development Programme before the 2021 America’s Cup. He has led the design team and managed specialist input to the resource consent for the project. He has also been involved in design input, specialist expertise and design management for other DIDP projects including the ferry redevelopment, downtown public space, Quay Street enhancements, and services relocation.

In 2020, Luke was the design manager and technical lead on the North Auckland Line Bridge Upgrade for KiwiRail – he led the geotechnical design and soil-structure interaction design of the upgrade of five rail bridges alongside the structural designers.

During his career with T+T, Luke has spent a significant amount of time working with the Earthquake Commission (EQC) on the Christchurch Earthquake recovery, investigating the liquefaction vulnerability of properties in Canterbury and the potential measures to mitigate that vulnerability. 

Prior to joining T+T, Luke completed a PhD at the University of Auckland, producing his thesis “Soil-Foundation-Structure Interaction in the Earthquake Performance of Multi-Storey Buildings on Shallow Foundations”, under the supervision of Professor Michael Pender.  His thesis centred on multi-storey buildings in the Christchurch CBD that performed well during the Christchurch Earthquake of February 22, 2011. As part of this, he examined the influence of shallow foundation deformations on the earthquake response of the multi-storey buildings and considered whether those effects accounted for the buildings’ satisfactory performance.