WC 141: Emergency works

This page relates to the 2021-24 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

Work category 141 enables funding from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) in response to a defined, major, short-duration natural event (a qualifying event) that has reduced or will reduce customer levels of transport service significantly below those that existed prior to the event and results in unforeseen, significant expenditure.

Qualifying activities

Work category 141 covers assets, facilities and services eligible for funding from the NLTF that require:

• an immediate response for public safety or to provide vital access
• reinstatement of customer levels of transport service.

Activities not eligible for emergency works funding are described under 'Exclusions' below.

Work category 141 is available to the following activity classes:

• local road maintenance
• state highway maintenance.

Local road and state highway maintenance

Qualifying events

Events that qualify for NLTF funding as emergency works will:

• be of unusually large magnitude or severity for the particular area in which they occur (as a guide, they would be expected to have an annual return period greater than 1 in 10 years)
• originate from natural, short duration triggering events, including very high intensity rainfall, severe wind, severe drought in government declared drought areas, or seismic events
• have reduced, or will reduce within a 12-month period, levels of transport service significantly below those that existed prior to the event
• involve a total cost of $100,000 or more per event per approved organisation or Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (for its own activities) region
• be clearly defined, named and described, with a separate funding application required for each event.

Exclusions

Work category 141 excludes:

• minor events of less than $100,000 total cost ‒ these are funded from within the approved organisation's and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) approved maintenance programme under work category 140:
  Work category 140: Minor events

• the effects of scour, degradation, aggradation and land movements that have accumulated over time
• costs of damage or deficiencies from land movements that have not been triggered by a specific event
• the repair of any damage to work under construction, including within the post-construction maintenance period ‒ this is a charge to the activity under construction and is expected to be covered by the supplier's insurance
• any damage that is the result of a human intervention or incident, eg caused by a vehicle crash or operational activity
• improvements associated with permanent reinstatement – these should be assessed and prioritised as improvement activities, separate from the emergency works funding application and, if approved, funded from the appropriate improvement activity class and work category
• costs to respond to damage that may be caused by qualifying events but the activities are not eligible for funding from the NLTF, eg aesthetic treatments on berms, shoulders, medians and traffic islands.

Guidance – high intensity rainfall events

For information on return period storm events, see the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) high intensity rainfall design system. A ‘return period’ in this context is the probability that storms will occur.

NIWA high intensity rainfall design system(external link)

Rainfall recorded at specific weather stations throughout New Zealand can be accessed through the NIWA Cliflo service. Users need to subscribe for this free service.

NIWA Cliflo service(external link)

Difference between emergency works and resilience improvements

Emergency works respond to damage or deficiencies caused by defined, out of the ordinary, natural events.

Resilience improvements (formerly preventive maintenance) provide for non-routine work required to protect the serviceability of roads and cycleways from damage, and to minimise the threat of road closure arising from natural phenomena. The activity is not connected to a defined event – these are funded under work category 357.

Work category 357: Resilience improvements

Funding assistance rate

The usual funding assistance rate (FAR) that applies to emergency works for qualifying events within each financial year is:

• the approved organisation's normal FAR. This covers cumulative claims for total costs of emergency works up to 10% of the approved organisation's total cost of its maintenance programme for the year (as approved when the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) was adopted).
  Normal funding assistance rates

or

• the approved organisation's normal FAR plus 20% to a maximum of 95%. This is for the part of the cumulative claims of total costs of emergency works that exceeds 10% of the approved organisation's total cost of its approved maintenance programme for the year, for example:
  • an approved organisation's maintenance programme for a year may have been approved at a total cost of $5 million
  • its normal FAR for that year may be 52%
  • its cumulative claims for emergency works in the same year may total $700,000
  • the FAR for the first $500,000 (10% of $5 million) will be 52%
  • the FAR for the $200,000 above 10% will be 72%

or

• the approved organisation's special purpose roads maintenance FAR for emergency works on special purpose roads
  Other funding assistance rates

or

• 100% of the Waka Kotahi state highway costs.

Special FAR for the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend and cyclones Gabrielle and Hale severe weather events

The Waka Kotahi Board has approved the application of a special FAR to all eligible initial response costs resulting from the January 2023 Auckland Anniversary weekend flood events and Cyclone Gabrielle (together known as the North Island Weather Events – NIWE) and/or Cyclone Hale for approved organisations at a rate of normal FAR plus 40%, to a maximum of 100%.

For Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) and KiwiRail activities, the emergency works FAR is their normal FAR of 100%.

The special FAR applies only to initial response works in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years in relation to damage resulting from NIWE and/or Cyclone Hale. The initial response phase is defined as covering:

• the work necessary to reopen a road or other facility, where practicable, to at least a single-lane facility for safe use by traffic or to minimise risk of further damage, debris clearance from roads, bridges and paths, temporary route reinstatement, emergency bridging installation (for example Bailey bridges), restoration of drainage, temporary site protection measures, and temporary site traffic management, and
• minor reinstatements or non-complex recovery, geotechnical and structural investigations and programme scoping, costing and planning for recovery.

Waka Kotahi will apply the special FAR to initial response costs as follows:

• NIWE includes Cyclone Gabrielle (being the severe weather event which crossed the North Island during the period commencing on 12 February 2023 and ending on 16 February 2023) and the Auckland Anniversary flooding event (being the heavy rainfall commencing on 26 January 2023 and ending on 3 February.
• Cyclone Hale refers to the severe weather event which crossed the North Island during the period commencing on 12 February 2023 and ending on 16 February 2023 .
• Where damage has occurred from both Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle/Auckland Anniversary flooding event, then the entire event is treated as being from Cyclone Gabrielle/Auckland Anniversary flooding event. A single application may be made, but we expect that as far as is practical approved organisations will maintain separate records of their initial response and reinstatement costs for managing each event.
• All works will conform to the work category 141 standard eligibility criteria and conditions of funding for emergency works.

Approved organisations are required to create their emergency works requests for these events by completing the template in Transport Investment Online (TIO) in the usual way for all years. We (Waka Kotahi as investor) will review the request and complete funding approval in the usual way.

Transport Investment Online (external link)

Special FAR exclusions

The recovery phase (permanent reinstatement – work that is required to restore the road network to its former, or a similar, condition) is not included under the special FAR. Our current default position for funding of subsequent work (ie post initial response) is that:

• recovery works (that is, reinstatement in the same location to a similar level of service) would be funded in line with the Waka Kotahi emergency works eligibility criteria and FAR  (as set out above for all eligible events).

• rebuild works (that is, reinstatement or rebuild that incorporate improvements, retreat or realignment) would be funded as capital improvement projects – that is, funded at normal FAR – and may trigger the need for a business case.

Submitting activities for NLTP consideration and funding approval

Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) submit these activities using the emergency works module in Transport Investment Online (TIO). A separate activity needs to be set up in TIO for each event, with relevant documentation uploaded to support the application.

Transport Investment Online(external link)

User guides for TIO are available in TIO.

Emergency works activities for immediate or temporary repair of damage caused by a sudden and unexpected event do not need to be added to the relevant regional land transport plan (RLTP) prior to approval and will be added to the NLTP automatically on processing of an approval.

Extreme events bespoke arrangements for hardship reasons

Where there is evidence that an extreme event, or a series of large events, results in emergency works expenditure beyond an approved organisation’s ability to raise local share and continue to provide appropriate levels of service on its network over the next three years, we (Waka Kotahi as investor) may consider a bespoke arrangement.

In making a decision on bespoke arrangements, we will:

• estimate the local share of the annual emergency works by applying the above policy over the next three years, relative to the approved organisation's maintenance programme local share and its annual revenue. The expectation is that the local share of the emergency works would be a substantial proportion of both maintenance programme local share and revenue
• consider the financial position of the approved organisation and its ability to raise local share for the emergency works expenditure, ie evidence of hardship
• consider the urgency to complete the emergency works and ability to programme them over time.

The bespoke arrangement could, for instance, consist of a short-term enhanced emergency works FAR or we could front load more of the emergency works spend in the first year or two with the approved organisation paying its local share over a longer time period.

An application for a bespoke arrangement that involves an enhanced FAR would trigger the Waka Kotahi significance policy, requiring the decision to enter an arrangement to be elevated to the Waka Kotahi Board. While any bespoke arrangement is being negotiated, the Waka Kotahi emergency works policy above will continue to apply.

Emergency works process – detail

We (Waka Kotahi as investor) expect applications for and approvals of emergency works funding to follow the process set out above. The key steps are:

1. The approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) identifies damage to the network following a natural disaster.
2. The decision to take action for the immediate response to ensure public safety and restore vital access rests with the approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities). There is no requirement to notify our (Waka Kotahi as investor) regional representative and the investment decision is exempt from the procurement procedure requirements of s.25 of the Land Transport Management Act (LTMA).
3. The approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) notifies our regional representative of the event to give a forewarning of the potential application for emergency works. The notification is an input to a briefing note to the Minister about extreme events.
4. The approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) assesses the damage caused by an event and estimates the scope and cost of reinstatement.
5. The approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) checks whether the activity is eligible for emergency works funding against criteria in ‘Qualifying activities’, ‘Qualifying events’ and ‘Exclusions’ sections above.
6. If not eligible, the cost is not to be funded as an emergency work and will be delivered either under an alternative work category, eg work category 140 or from an alternative funding source outside the NLTF.
   Work category 140: Minor events

7. The approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) checks whether NLTF funding for the activity can be approved under delegated authority. If within delegation, the approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) may proceed to step 10.
   Funding delegations policy

8. If outside delegated authority, the approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) will contact our regional representative within one week of the event and request an inspection of the damage.
9. Within four weeks of the event, our regional representative will inspect the site, confirm it is eligible as emergency work and agree on the scope of works and cost estimate. Alternatively, the representative may forego a physical inspection and instead rely on photographs and a report. This stage forms the basis of the application for funding assistance (step 10).
10. Within six weeks of the event, the approved organisation or Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) applies for funding assistance via Transport Investment Online (TIO). A separate activity is required for each defined event with an event-specific title. Supporting documentation, eg photos, reports and costings, should be uploaded into TIO. No generalised funding applications, eg '2014/15 Emergency works' will be accepted.
11. The funding application is approved at the appropriate authority level. If a bespoke arrangement involving an enhanced FAR is proposed, this must be approved by the Waka Kotahi Board.
12. The approval is processed in TIO. Other than for a bespoke arrangement, the TIO system will set the FAR(s) that applies to the activity.

Conditions of funding

General conditions of funding that apply to emergency works:

• The Waka Kotahi uneconomic transport facilities policy will be applied to all investment decisions for permanent reinstatement of roads and infrastructure. If a facility is determined to be uneconomic under the policy, we may decide not to co-invest, in full or at all, in its reinstatement.
  Uneconomic transport infrastructure

• Permanent reinstatement to restore levels of transport service is subject to the procurement procedure requirements in s.25 of the LTMA.
• Application of the One Network Roading Classification (ONRC) – while the Waka Kotahi emergency works policy is to reinstate to pre-existing levels of service, we may, where the ONRC service level is lower than existed previously, decide to co-invest to achieve the appropriate ONRC level of service rather than the full reinstatement of service levels. Where the ONRC points to a higher level of service than existed prior to the event being appropriate, the increase in service level should be justified and approved as an improvement activity, funded under the appropriate improvement activity class and work category.
  One Network Road Classification (ONRC)

• Approval of emergency works funding presumes applicants have applied sound asset management practice and have maintained any assets damaged by a qualifying event to a reasonable standard, taking into account the age and original construction standard of the assets. Where we consider that the damaged assets have not been maintained to a reasonable standard, or that the damage could have been mitigated by reasonable cost preventive interventions, we may decide to decline or reduce the total cost for approval of the emergency works funding application.

End-of-year reconciliation and carryover

At the end of each year, the emergency works approvals will be reconciled to claims. Any application that does not qualify as emergency works due to the total cost being less than $100,000 will be moved to work category 140 and its FAR adjusted. This will mean that the FAR for the remaining emergency works may also require adjustment in TIO. Any carryover to the following year will be added to any approved emergency works in that year and the appropriate FAR applied.

Work category 140: Minor events

TIO will automatically carry over the unspent allocation every year. It is vital that approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (for its own activities) declare as surplus any unused allocation for completed approved emergency works activities by making a cost scope adjustment via the reviews module in TIO.