diff --git a/buildspec.yaml b/buildspec.yaml
index dbeddf51dd..6eb3988768 100644
--- a/buildspec.yaml
+++ b/buildspec.yaml
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ phases:
   build:
     commands:
       - yarn build && yarn test
-      - yarn test:integ
   post_build:
     commands:
       - '[ ${CODEBUILD_BUILD_SUCCEEDING} = 1 ] && yarn package'
diff --git a/packages/@jsii/integ-test/package.json b/packages/@jsii/integ-test/package.json
index 3e0d37c309..462fb64215 100644
--- a/packages/@jsii/integ-test/package.json
+++ b/packages/@jsii/integ-test/package.json
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
     "jest": "^25.1.0",
     "jsii": "^0.21.2",
     "jsii-pacmak": "^0.21.2",
+    "tar": "^6.0.1",
     "typescript": "~3.7.5"
   },
   "jest": {
diff --git a/packages/@jsii/integ-test/test/build-cdk.test.ts b/packages/@jsii/integ-test/test/build-cdk.test.ts
index 141f8ac00f..ca354e92ba 100644
--- a/packages/@jsii/integ-test/test/build-cdk.test.ts
+++ b/packages/@jsii/integ-test/test/build-cdk.test.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
-import { mkdtemp, remove } from 'fs-extra';
+import { mkdtemp } from 'fs-extra';
 import * as path from 'path';
 import * as Octokit from '@octokit/rest';
-import { downloadReleaseAsset, minutes, ProcessManager, writeFileStream } from '../utils';
+import { downloadReleaseAsset, minutes, ProcessManager, extractFileStream } from '../utils';
 import * as dotenv from 'dotenv';
 
 dotenv.config();
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ describe('Build CDK', () => {
 
   afterAll(async () => {
     await processes.killAll();
-    await remove(buildDir);
+    // await remove(buildDir);
   });
 
   test('can build latest cdk release', async () => {
@@ -34,38 +34,26 @@ describe('Build CDK', () => {
       repo: 'aws-cdk'
     });
 
-    // save code to tmp dir
-    const fileName = 'cdk.tar.gz';
-    const tarFile = path.join(buildDir, fileName);
+    // download and extract code
     const code = await downloadReleaseAsset(`https://api.github.com/repos/aws/aws-cdk/tarball/${release.data.tag_name}`);
-
-    await writeFileStream(code, tarFile);
-
-    // unzip tar archive
-    await processes.spawn('tar', ['-xzf', fileName], {
-      cwd: buildDir
-    });
-
-    // root dir of extracted src
-    // `${buildDir}/${owner}-${repo}-${first 7 chars of commit hash}
-    const srcDir = path.join(buildDir, `aws-aws-cdk-${release.data.target_commitish.substring(0, 7)}`);
+    await extractFileStream(code, buildDir);
 
     // install cdk dependencies
     await processes.spawn('yarn', ['install'], {
-      cwd: srcDir
+      cwd: buildDir
     });
 
     // link local jsii/jsii-pacmak builds
-    await processes.spawn('rm', ['-rf', './node_modules/jsii'], { cwd: srcDir });
-    await processes.spawn('rm', ['-rf', './node_modules/jsii-pacmak'], { cwd: srcDir });
-    await processes.spawn('ln', ['-s', JSII_DIR, './node_modules'], { cwd: srcDir });
-    await processes.spawn('ln', ['-s', JSII_PACMAK_DIR, './node_modules'], { cwd: srcDir });
+    await processes.spawn('rm', ['-rf', './node_modules/jsii'], { cwd: buildDir });
+    await processes.spawn('rm', ['-rf', './node_modules/jsii-pacmak'], { cwd: buildDir });
+    await processes.spawn('ln', ['-s', JSII_DIR, './node_modules'], { cwd: buildDir });
+    await processes.spawn('ln', ['-s', JSII_PACMAK_DIR, './node_modules'], { cwd: buildDir });
 
     // build cdk
-    await processes.spawn('npx', ['lerna', 'run', 'build', '--stream'], { cwd: srcDir });
+    await processes.spawn('npx', ['lerna', 'run', 'build', '--stream'], { cwd: buildDir });
 
     // package modules
-    await processes.spawn('yarn', ['run', 'pack'], { cwd: srcDir });
+    await processes.spawn('yarn', ['run', 'pack'], { cwd: buildDir });
 
     console.timeEnd('cdkbuild');
   }, minutes(60));
diff --git a/packages/@jsii/integ-test/utils/index.ts b/packages/@jsii/integ-test/utils/index.ts
index 69a6e4062f..4e054354a7 100644
--- a/packages/@jsii/integ-test/utils/index.ts
+++ b/packages/@jsii/integ-test/utils/index.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { Readable } from 'stream';
-import { createWriteStream } from 'fs';
+import { extract } from 'tar';
 import * as cp from 'child_process';
 import * as https from 'https';
 import { IncomingMessage } from 'http';
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ export class ProcessManager {
   /**
    * kill all still running processes
    *
-   * @param [signal] - signal sent to terminate process
+   * @param signal sent to terminate process
    */
   async killAll(signal?: string) {
     const values = Object.values(this.processes);
@@ -85,11 +85,11 @@ export class ProcessManager {
  * write downloaded asset to file
  *
  * @param source stream
- * @param destination of saved file
+ * @param destination directory for extracted files
  */
-export function writeFileStream(source: Readable, destination: string) {
+export function extractFileStream(source: Readable, destination: string) {
   return new Promise((ok, ko) => {
-    const destStream = createWriteStream(destination);
+    const destStream = extract({ cwd: destination });
     destStream.once('close', ok);
     destStream.once('error', ko);
     source.once('error', ko);