The Coalition Government is also taking action to reduce expenditure on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM) while maintaining the safety of workers and road users.

Simeon Brown says, “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.

“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.”

Brown says that 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.