NZTA does not know how much it spends on cones

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Astonishing as it may seem NZTA does not know either how much it spends on road cones as part of its Temporary Traffic Management system, or even how many companies it uses to supply and manage the cones. See my Official Information Act request and the response below.

9 April 2024

Barrie Saunders

REF: OIA-14996

Dear Barrie

Request made under the Official Information Act 1982

Thank you for your email of 25 March 2024 requesting the following information under the Official

Information Act 1982 (the Act):

1. The total cost of traffic management in the last financial year

2. How many traffic management firms you used in the last financial year

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) does not procure Temporary Traffic Management (TTM)

as an individual item, but as part of activities within our maintenance contracts. The State Highway

network is separated into 23 regional networks, each with its own maintenance contract. These

maintenance contractors manage any TTM requirements and resourcing for each regional contract,

whether that be in house TTM or through sub-contractors. NZTA therefore does not hold individual

data on TTM costs or number of subcontractors used by our primary contractors for TTM.

Therefore, I am required to refuse your request under section 18(g) of the Act as the information

requested is not held by NZTA and I have no grounds for believing that the information is connected

more closely with the functions of another department or Minister of the Crown or organisation or of a local authority.

While TTM is important to keep road works safe, the efficiency and costs required are a significant

focus of NZTA’s. On 4 March the draft 2024 Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS)

was released for consultation. The draft includes a strategic priority to reduce expenditure on

temporary traffic management and includes a requirement for reporting on TTM on a quarterly basis.

NZTA is actively transitioning to a risk-based approach which will support efficient TTM set-ups that

effectively keep people safe. This will include changes to contracts, a new way of working and

monitoring to ensure this meets both safety and cost efficiency outcomes. You can find more

information on this approach at https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roads-and-rail/new-zealand-guide-to-temporary-traffic-management/.2

Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision to refuse this request. The contact details for the Ombudsman can be located at http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.

In line with NZTA policy, this response will soon be published on our website, with personal information removed.

If you would like to discuss this reply with NZTA, you are welcome to contact it by email atofficial.correspondence@nzta.govt.nz.

Thank you again for writing.

Yours sincerely

Vanessa Browne

National Manager Te Toki Manawa – Programme and Standards

Published by Barrie Saunders

This blogsite was established because of my interest and involvement in the media and public policy going back more than four decades. For 25 years I was a Government Relations consultant retiring from Saunders Unsworth in 2015. Earlier work included journalism in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, public relations roles in Parliament, manufacturing and the meat industry – also in the late 1980s the North American Director of the NZ Meat Producers Board based in New York. I was President of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce 2000-2002 and was Chairman of the NZ Taxpayers Union from 2018 until March 2021.

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