03 December 2020
Infrastructure Decision Support (IDS) have tonight won the coveted Excellence In Maximising Asset Performance Award at the annual IPWEA NZ Excellence Awards which were held in Dunedin at the Dunedin Centre.Receiving the award, (centre) Andy Bartlett and Julie Muir from CODC, alongside Dr Theuns Henning, CEO of IDS, flanked
by project team members.
IDS is a non-profit organisation set up by the local industry to support infrastructure decision makers.
Dr Theuns Henning, IDS, CEO, and lecturer at the University of Auckland was thrilled with the win but quick to point out
that it was very much a team effort; “We simply could not have developed the unsealed roads modelling tool (the focus of
our award entry) without the support of Central Otago District Council (CODC) with whom we jointly submitted our entry.
A number of research students from the University of Auckland also made valuable contributions.
“Our industry partners such as CODC were able to bring their ‘real life’ experience to the project specifications brief
but were also there as a sense check throughout the development process to ensure that the tool we were developing would
offer meaningful benefits to our end users. We are proud that this tool has been developed by Kiwis for Kiwi conditions
with the help of our Canadian software partners, Deighton.
“Unsealed roads play an important role in the New Zealand economy. More than 40% of the local roading networks in New
Zealand are unsealed, and yet 80% of our primary industry economic trips start on these roads. Previously there were no
modelling tools available designed specifically with unsealed roads at their core but merely sealed road tools that had
been modified and really didn’t fit with New Zealand’s needs.A quintessential kiwi unsealed road: Spring-time on the unsealed roads of the Maniototo District, Central Otago – photo
credit: David Wall
“One of the key issues for council decisionmakers is weighing up community needs vs available budget and balancing this
alongside other factors such as material sourcing, customer feedback and cultural considerations. Our new tool uses data
to optimise asset performance and deliver positive community outcomes which is the end goal. To gain this sort of
recognition from our IPWEA peers validates IDS’ purpose for being. Personally, having devoted much of my professional
life to unsealed roads modelling I feel incredibly humbled.”
For more information about the IDS Unsealed Roads Modelling Tool visit www.ids.org.nz.