Planning and investing for outcomes - overview

Introduction

The Transport Agency’s planning and investment processes, policies and systems aim to achieve integrated planning For the NZTA, integrated planning means leading and working with central, regional and local government, private developers and other partners such as Kiwi Rail and port companies, to bring land use planning, and transport planning and investment together, to deliver an affordable Demonstrates that adequate funding to deliver the activity, or combination of activities, is available from identified sources, e.g. a funding plan has been identified. transport system that supports a growing economy, safe and vibrant communities and a healthy environment, now and in the future. It is an approach we follow to deliver on the outcomes we seek. and provide the best investment return for the transport system users.  The relationship between our investment and the transport outcomes it realises is a key consideration in planning and investing for outcomes.  

SOI Impacts

• Better use of existing transport capacity
• More efficient freight supply chains Moving a volume of freight at the lowest whole of life and transport system cost
• A resilient and secure transport network
• Easing of severe congestion Severe congestion congestion is where the volume to capacity ratio exceeds 80% for 5 days per week over at least a 1 hour time period that affects at least 1.5 km of a route.  For information on the volume to capacity ratio, see Appendix A3 of the NZTA's Economic Evaluation Manual is where the volume to capacity ratio exceeds 100% for 5 days per week over at least 1 hour in a time period on at least 3 km of a route and the average annual daily traffic (AADT) is greater than 20,000 vehicles per day.
  For information on the volume to capacity ratio, refer to Appendix A3 of the NZTA's Economic Evaluation Manual
• More efficient vehicle fleets
• Reduction in deaths and serious injuries from road crashes
• More transport mode choice
• Reduction in adverse environmental effects from land transport 

How do we invest in outcomes?

The diagram below shows how the Transport Agency’s SOI impacts will be used to drive investment and how investments will be monitored.  The Assessment Framework, which is derived from the Transport Agency's Investment and Revenue Strategy (IRS), is used to assess and prioritise activities to achieve the transport outcomes.

Integrated planning

Integrated planning provides the opportunity to work in partnership to take a comprehensive and integrated approach to transport, land-use planning and investment, and to determine the most optimal transport solutions. 

The Transport Agency’s involvement at an early stage in planning provides signals around future investment implications of land-use planning decisions and their alignment with Transport Agency policy. It also helps to ensure the effective functioning of the state highway component of the network.

Strategies, packages and plans

To implement an integrated strategic approach to investment, the Transport Agency is shifting its emphasis from ‘funding outputs Goods or services delivered by an activity or combination of activities. ’ towards ensuring that strategies, packages and plans are aligned with desired outcomes.   

Through its support of Programme Business cases  the Transport Agency aims to provide more certainty to its investment partners that their investment proposals for complex projects align with the Transport Agency’s SOI impacts.

Robust planning needs to be demonstrated in the investment proposals from Approved Organisations and the Transport Agency(state highways).  Strategies and packages should be focused on areas where:

• the effective functioning of the transport system is of high priority
• the land-use and transport context is likely to change, and
• solutions are likely to be complex and require substantial integration. 

The Transport Agency’s policy is that large/complex improvement activities that are proposed for investigation funding should, as a rule, only be proposed for the 2012-15 NLTP A National Land Transport Programme Interrelated and complementary combination of activities that, when delivered in a coordinated manner, produce synergies – can span more than one work category and more than one activity class, e.g. a programme could include a road improvement and public transport improvement activities. adopted by the NZTA under section 19 of the LTMA, as from time to time amended or varied if they derive from strategies supported by the Transport Agency. If such an activity is proposed for the NLTP without a supported strategy, it may be accepted for inclusion if accompanied by a Transport Planning activity for development of its underlying strategy or agreement has been reached with the Transport Agency that a supported strategy is not required in the specific case.

Maintenance, renewals and low cost activities

For routine, lower cost and risk activities, mainly contained in maintenance and minor/small improvement programmes, the emphasis will be on Activity Management Plans Plans describe the tactics to give effect to a strategy. They are specific in content, action oriented and outputs focussed, resulting in a tangible set of activities to be delivered within a clear timeframe. , which should be robust and fit for purpose. 

Planning and Investment Teams

The Transport Agency’s Planning and Investment Managers will work with Approved Organisations to assist them with planning and investing for outcomes. 

Our planning and investment teams consist of:

• Regional Directors (representatives on Regional Transport Committees)
• Regional Managers Planning and Investment (and their teams)
• Planning and Investment Managers (and their teams)
• National Investment Manager (and team)

Planning and investment principles

The Transport Agency's planning and investment principles underlie all of its planning and investment decisions and the Transport Agency expects that all investment proposals will reflect these principles.