Hon Simeon Brown
Minister of Transport

The Coalition Government is taking action to reduce expenditure on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM) while maintaining the safety of workers and road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.

• Rolling out a new risk-based approach to TTM that will reduce the number of road cones on our roads.
• Requiring NZTA to publicly report in October on how much money has been spent on TTM each year for the past three years, and begin quarterly reporting on the cost of TTM with the expectation that this expenditure will reduce.
• Appointing independent members to the Road Efficiency Group to manage the reduction in TTM expenditure.

“Road maintenance is essential, and some level of TTM is unavoidable. But the current approach out of control. Excessive use of road cones and temporary speed limit reductions - sometimes left in place when work is complete - simply increases cost, forces people to slow down, and frustrates drivers.

“In fact, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) conducted a review of TTM at 800 maintenance worksites on the State highway network across the country in February and found that 145 of these sites were not needed, showing how out of control the use of road cones and temporary traffic management has become.

“NZTA is responding to the Government’s expectation that TTM expenditure is reduced by rolling out a new risk based TTM guidance at worksites on State Highways. This model is based on the Australian approach to TTM, where there is far less reliance on the no longer humble orange road cone.

“This new approach will include changes to contracts, a new way of training, and monitoring to ensure this meets both safety and cost efficiency outcomes. NZTA is now also continually reviewing current TTM on the network and instructing its suppliers to remove TTM that is not required.

“However, we won’t know whether these changes are effective unless we are also reporting and measuring whether it is working. When I became Minister of Transport, I asked NZTA to outline how much money had been spent by NZTA each year for the past three years on Temporary Traffic Management and was advised this information was not compiled and so was unavailable.

“The Government will be requiring NZTA and all Road Controlling Authorities to report quarterly on the amount of taxpayers’ money it is spending so that Kiwis know how much of their hard-earned money is being spent on TTM.

“The first of these reports will be produced in October and will determine a baseline of how much NZTA has spent on TTM in the last three years. My expectation is that expenditure on road cones and TTM will reduce each year going forward.

“Already our Government has delivered a $3.9 billion funding boost to fix and prevent potholes on our State Highways and local roads. Over the next decade, NZTA will deliver an increased road renewals programme in an efficient way that reduces the number of road cones and TTM costs overall.

“In order to maximise the effectiveness of maintenance work across New Zealand, the Government will also appoint independent members to the Road Efficiency Group (REG), started under the previous National Government with a focus on finding efficiencies in road maintenance spending to deliver more for taxpayers’ investment in road maintenance.

“The Government is also reviewing the Health and Safety at Work Act and the impact it has on TTM practices in order to see if changes are required to the Act to ensure we balance the safety of road workers with the need to keep costs under control and not unnecessarily inconvenience motorists.

Notes:

• Of the 800 worksites reviewed by the NZTA Maintenance and Operations Team in February, 558 (or 69.8 per cent) sites were unattended. Of those 558 unattended sites, 145 (or 26 per cent) were found to not be needed.
• NZTA is now working at the wider system level to ensure changes across TTM. NZTA has published the New Zealand Guide to Temporary Traffic Management (NZGTTM) which outlines a risk-based process for decision-making for TTM.
• The risk-based guidance focuses on rightsizing of TTM and provides flexibility of equipment, and controls based on the level of risk at each site. For example, a short night road closure may be used instead of the traditional daytime ‘stop/go’ approach.
• Using the risk-based approach, it is anticipated that TTM costs will reduce for simple works, and TTM costs may be higher upfront but lower ongoing for more complex works where alternative TTM methods (e.g. road closures) are used. This will result in fewer cones.
• NZTA will start to report key cost and performance metrics from October 2024. This will include national TTM metrics that demonstrate efficiency in the way NZTA delivers projects.
• Expenditure on TTM contributes significantly to the overall costs of maintaining our roads. Auckland Transport alone estimates it spends at least $145 million annually.
• Locally, NZTA is also working directly with Auckland Transport, Wellington City Council and Christchurch City Council to help make TTM safer, more efficient, and effective on both State Highways and local roads.
• An example of more efficient and effective TTM includes recent works on the SH1 Wellington Urban Motorway – Wellington Transport Alliance completed 68 road maintenance and safety tasks during a 3-week night closure, instead of using a daytime ‘stop/go’ approach, saving $154,000 on traffic management and removing 125 hours of high-risk activities from its workers.

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