Roading upgrades not keeping to plan

NZTA documents show work behind schedule

WELLINGTON: The NZ Transport Agency has not been able to keep pace with planned safety upgrades to the roading network, documents have revealed.

The revelations have thrown into doubt Government initiatives to boost the economy with a raft of infrastructure projects.

The Government is promising to provide extra funding to infrastructure projects that are ready to start in the next six months, as a way to boost the economy and create jobs.

New roads, better water infrastructure and the building or retrofitting of homes are among the projects.

But documents obtained by RNZ show the NZ Transport Agency was failing to deliver roading projects before the Covid19 pandemic struck.

In 2018, $1.4 billion was set aside for the Safe Network Programme to make safety improvements on the most dangerous roads.

The goal of that programme was to prevent 160 deaths or serious injuries on the road each year.

It would do that by making safety improvements on 10% of the roading network, the most dangerous parts, adding median barriers, side barriers and rumble strips.

Some roads would also need to be redesigned.

In a report sent to ministers late last year, which RNZ has obtained under the Official Information Act, the agency said its current delivery rate was half what was expected.

The agency was struggling to spend the money allocated to road safety and said larger projects were taking longer than expected to get started.

The report said it was difficult to build in long, narrow corridors, which is the situation for many dangerous roads.

Industry capacity, the number of people available to actually make these upgrades, was stretched for specialist resources.

The report went on to say the agency expected a significant increase in spending over summer to get projects under way.

But the report said the pace of delivery would need to increase significantly for the agency to meet its targets, and in particular to reach the $751 million that has been earmarked for local roads.

In order to spend the allocated money, it was suggested that extra safety improvements were added to existing projects, a way to boost the safety numbers but not necessarily on the most dangerous roads.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford admitted there had been issues in the past 18 months concerning the production rate at which roads have been built and safety upgrades added. But he also said that because unemployment was expected to surge during the pandemic — some estimates put it at 30% — there will be a massive work force ready to make these roads and deliver these projects.

‘‘We’re going to have surplus capacity in the economy as a result of the downturn caused by Covid19,’’ Mr Twyford said.

‘‘Building up our construction industry, whether it’s residential, horizontal, which is roads and three waters, or vertical, that is buildings, we’re going to have potential to do a lot more [construction] and to soak up that spare capacity in the economy.

He said the Government would be working with the new Institute of Skills and Training to try to get new infrastructure work force up to speed with their potential new jobs.

Industry leaders say they have gained confidence by the Government’s infrastructure announcements, but they still expect to be at less than their pre-Covid19 capacity by the end of the year.

Fulton Hogan managing director Cos Bruyn said they are running about 20% of their prepandemic workforce during the lockdown.

That is almost exclusively on emergency roading and other essential fixes.

He expected Fulton Hogan to be at 80% of their prepandemic work force by the end of the year.

He said major private projects, such as the upgrades at Auckland Airport, had been cancelled and it would have a major impact on the infrastructure sector.

❛ We’re going to have surplus capacity in the economy as a result of the downturn caused by Covid19

Phil Twyford