Councils will soon be forced to take a “commonsense approach” to the use of road cones for traffic management or risk government funding for roads projects, Transport Minister Chris Bishop has announced.
“New Zealanders have become increasingly irritated by the too-frequently over-the-top use of road cones and costly temporary traffic management around roadworks,” Mr Bishop says.
“This approach causes drivers unnecessary delays, creates congestion and wastes taxpayers’ money. The previous government spent a whopping $786 million of taxpayers’ money on temporary traffic management in just three years.
“We campaigned on bringing some much-needed common sense to the use of road cones, and we’re making good progress.”
The Minister said NZTA has worked with its project contractors to “apply pragmatism and critical thinking” to the way it uses road cones and other temporary traffic management measures.
“Since we’ve formed Government, the percentage of project costs spent on temporary traffic management has reduced from 15.8 per cent of maintenance costs down to 8.8%, and from 6.0% of the cost of capital projects, down to just 2.3%.”
“This means fewer disruptions for drivers, and less taxpayer money wasted. NZTA has achieved these results by requiring its contractors on state highway projects to shift away from an overly prescriptive Code of Practice which specifies in detail the exact spacing required between road cones, among many other requirements.
“They have instead moved to a far more pragmatic guide which allows contractors to use their experience and common sense to keep everyone safe on a worksite, rather than specifying road cone use down to the centimetre.
“Local roads are owned and maintained by councils. Many of them still use the very prescriptive Code of Practice, which is why we still see ridiculous temporary traffic management measures on local streets, such as quiet cul-de-sacs covered in road cones because of minor work on a footpath.”
The “over-the-top” traffic management by councils is costing ratepayers money, says Mr Bishop.
“The Government has got its own house in order by significantly cutting its temporary traffic management costs on state highways. Some councils are also making good efforts in this area – but now all councils will be required to get on board,” he said.
The Government funds local council transport projects to the tune of over $1 billion per year through the National Land Transport Fund, which is administered by NZTA.
“I am pleased to announce that in future, the NZTA Board will require councils to apply the more pragmatic New Zealand guide to temporary traffic management to their local roadworks contracts before approving government funding for those projects.”
“By requiring local councils to adopt a risk-based approach, we’ll see more sensible use of temporary traffic management on local roads, keeping road workers and others safe, at a more reasonable cost to ratepayers.
“I’m pleased to see common sense making a return to our roads,” Mr Bishop said.
