Constructing, maintaining, and operating the land transport system consumes large quantities of fossil fuels, raw materials and other resources resulting in the consumption of non-renewable resources. It also results in emissions of harmful and greenhouse gases, noise, use of landfill space, and loss of productive materials. These activities can adversely affect terrestrial, aquatic, and coastal ecology in several ways.
In 2018, Aotearoa New Zealand generated 22 million tonnes of aggregate for use in road construction and moving this around New Zealand was estimated to represent 15 percent of total freight movements in 2017/18. Relatively little recycled material is used, with recycled materials making up only two percent of the pavement materials used in Waka Kotahi maintenance contracts in 2019.
Te Hiringa o Te Taiao – our resource efficiency strategy [PDF, 5.4 MB]
Emission reduction strategies have tended to focus on emissions arising from the use of the infrastructure. However, efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions increasingly consider whole-of-life emissions including embodied carbon. Major emission sources for land-based transport infrastructure construction projects are from fuel use, concrete, steel, and aggregate which have been found to be responsible for between 83% and 99% of the total emissions of the construction phase of projects.
Round one application has closed.
