1997: Interview with Transfund NZ Chair in Opus newsletter

In June/July 1997, Opus Consultants (the new name for Works Consultancy, the former Minister of Works and Development's consultancy arm after it had been privatised) produced its Momentum newsletter, which included an interview with then Transfund NZ Chairman Michael Gross.  The key points were:

• Establishment of Transfund was central to a wider range of reforms of the roading system.
• NZ's road network was seen as a model of change internationally by the World Bank
• Setting up of Transfund is expected to make the system more efficient by assisting development and co-ordination of national and regional strategies.  It operates like a private company, with the security of revenue to develop long-term strategic solutions.
• Gross said despite recent increases in funding (enabling the BCR for funding to drop to 4), the system is still underfunded.
• NZ has a low capital/high maintenance road system meaning roads have relatively short lives, and Transfund is looking how to optimise this.
• Alternatives to roading funding is to find ways to overcome the distortions of existing means of charging for road use, which doesn't address externalities such as congestion, environmental degradation and social dislocation.  Options it could fund include barging logs instead of massive road upgrades or new passenger transport systems to avoid building new road capacity, but is unlikely to provide funds for large projects like light rail.
• The forthcoming Road Pricing Study is expected to document options for road pricing and the need for decisions.  Options include congestion charging, suggesting use of smart card technology, and replacement of rats with some form of access charge for properties to access the road corridor, with registration covering the right to use the network.
• Gross thought a purely commercial model would be difficult to apply and need effort to ensure lightly trafficked rural roads were adequately funded, as urban areas generate far more income than the costs of maintaining those roads.

Momentum June/July 1997 - interview with Michael Gross

Pukete Bridge opens

 

This page taken from one of the last issues of Works Consultancy's Momentum magazine reports on the design and opening of the Pukete Bridge in Hamilton City.  The bridge was opened to service the sprawling suburbs of Pukete, Chartwell and Flagstaff north of Hamilton, connecting to the R1 Arterial Road link, which itself linked Te Rapa, State Highway 1 (as it was then), across to a new north-south arterial to the east of Hamilton terminating at SH1 to the south of the city (now all bypassed by the Waikato Expressway).

The project included 1.5km of arterial road, a 150m bridge and related works.  The route was designed to support future four-laning along the whole route (the section from Resolution Drive to Te Rapa Road is now four-laned).  The project also included a 3m wide shared pedestrian/cycleway along the entire route physically separated from the arterial road. 

Works Consultancy at the date of this report was being sold to Kinta Kellas Plc as privatisation of the company. It was noted that the Works brand was bought by Downers for Works Civil Construction. 

Momentum - Works Consultancy client magazine January/February 1996

The document muncher

As you can see the below magazine I was planning to scan has signs of teeth, in that the miniature dachshund above has chewed at it.  It's my fault for leaving it on the ground of course! So apologies if all the content is not clear!

Claudelands Bridge

Wellington Inner City Bypass

Wellington Inner City Bypass

Whangamoa Saddle

In 1996 the former Ministry of Works had been corporatised some years beforehand into an entity commonly called WorksCorp, but was officially the Works and Development Services Corporation.  This edition of its magazine I have selectively scanned for the articles on roads, but the first page (which was the last) also refers to its imminent privatisation.  It was sold as a going concern that year and became part of Opus Group. 

The articles in this edition include:

• Strengthening of the Claudelands Bridge in Hamilton City (which was originally the railway bridge for the East Coast Main Trunk Railway)
• Planning for the Stage 2 of the Wellington Inner City Bypass (later known as Karo Drive)
• Construction of the Whangamoa deviation on SH6 in Marlborough