State Highway Control Manual (SM012) consultation

Purpose

It is intended that the State Highway Control Manual will be fully and openly revised and your input to the process is requested.

General information

The State Highway Control Manual sets out policy and guidance for the management of the State highway network and interaction with the community and various entities that want to use the highways.  These things evolve and change over time and every so often there is a need for a full refresh.  Part of the aim is for greater participation and ownership.

To assist, the current Manual version 2, March 2023, can be found at:
State highway control manual (SM012)

Specific actions

The Manual is currently split into parts by discipline and changes to each part of the Manual will be assessed by the team responsible.  It will no longer be the responsibility of any other person to chase them to properly action changes.

The detailed list of Manual parts and the people responsible for managing the assessment of the assigned part are as set out below (Appendix 1).

The reason for this is the number of people who say that this manual updating is not empowering them to be able to change it.  As a result, the aim is now that the various sections will take responsibility for their own information and failure to keep it up to date will be their own responsibility.

Implementation

The named people in Appendix 1 are to be the points of contact for the various groups to mobilise teams to update their support information.  The teams will be provided with a Word version of their part of the Manual to update and should use it to provide a track-changed response for those changes.  They should also provide as response an itemised list of changes, via the schedule in Microsoft Teams (Teams button / State Highway Control Manual Revision / General / Files), that their team would like to see made to the Manual and the reasons for them. 

Group responses can be sent to: TransportServicesPandSAssurance@nzta.govt.nz, if not directly added to Microsoft Teams.

At the same time, the update will also be open to individual requests for changes to be submitted directly into the spreadsheet or via the individual submission sheet in Appendix 2.  Anyone who wants to suggest multiple changes may be best to do so using the spreadsheet rather than as a plethora of individual changes.  The spreadsheet can be found on Microsoft Teams (Teams button / State Highway Control Manual Revision / General / Files). 

The individual requests should be submitted via e-mail to SM012@nzta.govt.nz

Given this update is expected to be major, it is considered necessary to ensure that there is sufficient time for respondents to be able to compile changes.  This will not be the finish of the process though. 

All of the proposed changes will be compiled into a single place on the Consultation section of the website for those persons who wish to comment on or amend the changes.  This second part will only be for consideration of the proposed changes and not a re-opening of the consultation round.  This is so that those persons affected by the proposed changes have a chance to consider and comment on them so that a balanced viewpoint is attained. 

Dates for this will be advised later. 

Appendix 1:  Update responsibilities 

Appendix 2: Request for changes sample template

This template can be found on Microsoft Teams (Teams button / State Highway Control Manual Revision / General / Files).