Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Auckland's mayor is pushing for a law change to charge contractors for what he calls "nonsensical" road cone use.
Wayne Brown commissioned consultants Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY) to assess temporary traffic management in the city.
The report claims that contractors in the city were profiting from taking up road space with equipment and staff for too long, and that existing regulation incentivises contractors to cause maximum disruption.
Brown said the number of road cones in the city - a regular feature thanks to major works like City Rail Link and Watercare's Central Interceptor - was embarrassing.
"Temporary traffic management has gone beyond necessity, which doesn't make worksites any safer. The loss in productivity to Auckland businesses and households is taking a massive toll on our city financially, but it also causes undue stress," he said.
Auckland Transport has reduced its spend on temporary traffic management by $1.27 million since February, he said, and would be introducing a new disruption assessment tool.
But Brown said the city's ability to crack down on road cones was limited by legislation.
"Legislative change is needed to undo the economic damage unleased by bad policymaking."
He has welcomed the Minister of Transport's stance on temporary traffic management system, but said the review completed by the New Zealand Transport Agency last week would not lead to action.
The review was of temporary traffic management at 800 worksites, and found that 145 of them were not needed.
"It's strikingly obvious that NZTA and MOT have a disturbing lack of understanding of commercial drivers for this industry. I'm not convinced we need another review. Just give us the power to set fees and fines that reflect the scale of disruption," he said.
AT spokesperson Tracey Berkahn said the organisation was pleased to participate in the report and welcomed the findings.
"The report acknowledges our desire to improve the impact of disruption caused by temporary traffic management and highlights the mechanisms that need to change to address this.
"We look forward to working on the AT related recommendations, many of which we are already implementing."
'We should remove legislative barriers'
Nick Leggett Photo: RNZ/ Tom Kitchin
Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett said he also supported the mayor's war on road cones.
He said New Zealand needed to increase the efficiency of temporary traffic management to get better value for money on infrastructure.
"We do need incentives to get work done as quickly as possible. New Zealand gets among the lowest value of its spend on infrastructure of any country in the OECD. If we're going to be a more productive country, we've got to look at ways of doing things better and faster."
Leggett said legislative barriers needed to be removed.
"And that means that if there are fees to lease a section of road that's being worked on, and to incentivise better, more efficient traffic management, then we should be looking at that," Leggett said.
He said New Zealanders may need to get used to short-term pain, long-term gain, when it came to infrastructure and road works.
"At the moment people get really grumpy about a road being closed for a period of time. Actually, if we can close a road for a period of time, get the work done quickly, isn't that better than thousands of cones, and weeks of disruption?"
He said faster construction did not have to mean compromising on safety, but drivers growing frustrating at prolonged delays from road works meant people were less likely to follow traffic management rules like speed limits.
"We can live with disruption if we know how long it's going to take. The problem is, so much of the work at the moment, people see road cones, they see slowing down, and often they don't actually see the associated works with it. That builds frustration, and actually increases risks."
In a statement, Downer - a main provider of temporary traffic management for construction works - said safety was its number one priority in temporary traffic management.
"Without these temporary traffic management plans, essential road and infrastructure works cannot be undertaken. Our industry is commercially competitive, and we always aim to deliver our work at the lowest possible cost."
Fulton Hogan declined RNZ's invitation to comment.