Please use these to support questions relating to version 1 of the New Zealand guide to temporary traffic management.
No. NZTA is in the process of adopting the NZGTTM on our state highway network, to meet our legal obligations as a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) under Health, Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA). The only mandatory H&S requirements are HSWA and the applicable parts of WorkSafe’s Good Practice Guidelines.
WorkSafe will not consider what guide is used - it will consider how PCBUs have identified and managed their risks. The NZGTTM is a specifically designed to support a risk-based approach to TTM.
WorkSafe states: “While PCBUs should check if there are widely used control measures for [a specific] risk (such as industry standards), they should always keep their specific circumstances in mind. A common industry practice might not be the most effective or appropriate control measure to use.”
Actually no. These accountabilities have existed since the Health, Safety at Work Act 2015 has been in place. CoPTTM may have made people feel safer if they applied it - but in fact, as outlined by WorkSafe’s statement above, applying CoPTTM does not remove a PCBU’s accountability to identify and manage risks.
NZTA is in the process of adopting the risk-based approach to TTM, as outlined in the New Zealand guide to temporary traffic management (NZGTTM) on our state highway network.
This means that NZTA, as the Road Controlling Authority (RCA) for state highways, will no longer use CoPTTM as the basis of our decision-making for TTM at worksites. We expect this transition to take place from October 2024.
In preparation for this, we’re converting and updating our contracts with our suppliers to have a consistent national approach to TTM:
Other RCAs can choose to use either the CoPTTM or the NZGTTM guide to support their TTM operations.
WorkSafe have clearly stated that they will not consider what guide is used – they will consider how a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) have identified and managed their risks.
WorkSafe states: “While PCBUs should check if there are widely used control measures for [a specific] risk (such as industry standards), they should always keep their specific circumstances in mind. A common industry practice might not be the most effective or appropriate control measure to use.”
As outlined by WorkSafe’s statement above, applying CoPTTM does not remove a PCBU’s accountability to identify and manage risks.
The NZGTTM is designed to support a risk-based approach to TTM and to support organisations meet their legal obligations as a PCBU under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA).
NZTA is working with the TTM industry steering group (TTM ISG) and the Road Efficiency Group (REG) on wider system level changes including a new industry-led training and competency model, an updated assurance programme and new quarterly reporting of TTM cost and performance metrics. All of these changes and information will be shared, via the TTM ISG and the REG, with other RCAs as it becomes available.
NZTA is working with REG on quarterly reporting by all RCAs – the first report due in October will include:
Further information on the processes and reporting methodology will be shared with the sector in due course.
The GPS also directs us to reduce TTM expenditure. To help with this, we expect that long-term cost efficiencies will come from the risk-based approach driving fit for purpose TTM setups, and a significant uplift in high quality renewal activities and integrated delivery, over a sustained period.
This will over-time reduce the requirement for smaller fixes and low-risk activities, therefore reducing TTM and costs overall.
CoPTTM has been in place for over 20 years, yet safety issues keep happening under it.
People continue to die and be seriously injured at TTM sites and this needs to change. Between 2017 and 2021, there were 43 fatal crashes and 287 serious injury crashes at road work sites with temporary speed limits. This is an increase on the previous 5-year period.
Within our industry, there’s a growing shift to a risk-based approach – it’s time for our national approach to temporary traffic management to reflect this and put the safety of our road workers and road users first.
NZTA’s new guidance aims to change the way we plan and manage people’s safety at TTM sites. The new guidance puts risk assessment and planning first. This is to make sure the TTM control types, design, and equipment used will keep people safe.
The NZGTTM has been designed to be consistent with WorkSafe’s new Good Practice Guideline: Keeping safe and healthy on the road and roadside(external link) to help organisations meet their legal obligations under HSWA.
NZTA is committed to a safer Aotearoa New Zealand where no one is killed or seriously injured on our roads.
NZTA believes all road workers and road users should go home safe every day, whether they’re on state highways or local roads.
There is more to do to make this a reality. NZTA’s new guidance is one step in the right direction. Other initiatives are also underway to improve road safety – research and new innovations to support our risk-based approach, safety camera trials and road worker safety education campaigns.
The NZGTTM puts risk assessment and planning first before decisions and control types and equipment are made. This new risk-based approach ensures that TTM setups are as safe as possible for the specific risks at each site.
In practice, this means that the NZGTTM acts as an important tool to encourage a new way of thinking and planning at the start of a project. It aims to encourage everyone to take responsibility for managing people’s safety by identifying safety risks and putting appropriate steps in place to keep people safe first, rather than considering the traffic management plan later.
To show our support for this new approach, NZTA will adopt the new guidance first at our own worksites across our transport network.
Construction and maintenance suppliers who carry out road works across our state highway network (Fulton Hogan, Downer, Higgins, HEB and WSP) along with NZTA, are the early adopters of the new risk-based guidance.
Waka Kotahi is working with its partners and suppliers to support them to respond and resource the new approach, while still meeting Waka Kotahi requirements on its contracts.
To help this transition, NZTA suppliers tested the new risk-based guidance during summer 2022/2023 in these areas:
During 2024, NZTA will continue to work with its partners and suppliers on a range of transition activities including:
NZTA also welcomes the wider industry to work together to support the transition to the new guidance and improve road safety. NZTA recognises this represents a change in the way the industry delivers its work and that adopting the new approach will require strong support across the sector.
Our first step to support the industry to transition to the NZGTTM will start with adopting the new risk-based approach at NZTA work sites consistently across the transport network. We’re working closely with our construction and maintenance suppliers to transition now, and we welcome any other stakeholders to use the new guidance.
The recently established industry-led steering group for road worker safety will play a vital role to support a successful transition from CoPTTM to the NZGTTM.
The role of the TTM industry steering group is to represent the views of the collective TTM industry and to take the lead on how the industry can adopt the new guidance at road works in practical terms. NZTA looks forward to supporting this group, along with other forums and stakeholder groups, to help support the wider industry to transition to the risk-based approach.
Industry-led TTM steering group(external link)
In all cases, the contracting PCBU (client), lead contractor PCBU, sub-contractor PCBU and engineer/designer PCBU must comply with the requirements of New Zealand legislation, in this case the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA 2015). Industry best practice guides such as the NZGTTM and WorkSafe’s Good Practice Guide: Keeping healthy and safe while working on the road or roadside do not change these legal obligations.
Where more than one PCBU has the same duty, they must consult, cooperate, and coordinate as far as reasonably practicable - refer to HSWA 2015 Section 34 Subsection 1.
When a lead contractor PCBU prepares a risk assessment they must consult, coordinate, and cooperate with the Road Controlling Authorities (RCA), the RCA must consult, coordinate, and cooperate with the lead contractor to make sure all reasonably practicable steps have been taken to ensure the safety of workers and others.
Alternatively, if a lead contractor PCBU follows traditional CoPTTM process and doesn’t prepare a risk assessment and submits to an RCA for approval, the RCA is encouraged to ask for a risk assessment.
The guide provides advice on how to keep people safe at temporary traffic work sites. It aims to help persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) to meet their duties under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA). It includes a general introduction to risk management along with TTM engineering principles and guidance for transport practitioners planning and preparing for temporary traffic management activity.
The TTM library has supporting information and resources on a range of topics to help the industry to put the guide into practice. In the TTM library you will find three categories of notes:
Guidance notes - following the TTM principles introduced in the guide, these notes outline how these principles can be applied in practice. The notes will also include guidance on how to manage unusual circumstances using the principles of the guide.
Operational practice notes - risks and considerations of control measures that the contracting PCBU determines are appropriate for regularly repeated specific activities. Operational practice notes are foundational to TMP’s for site specific and pre-approved reusable schemes.
Administrative notes - various administrative and process requirements to bring life to the TTM system principles including forms and documentation that are relevant while preparing or implementing a TMP, audit forms and on-site record forms.
NZTA and our industry partners have provided some resources as a starting point, and as more are developed by the TTM industry these will be added to the TTM library.
Risk management enables the organisations to work together to identify the risks present at a site. This flexibility enables the safest possible risk control option to be identified and implemented.
The NZGTTM includes tools that are useful to assist with this:
The first step is for the lead contractor PCBU to work with the Road Controlling Authority, rail authority, airports, port organisations and others to consult, coordinate, and cooperate to reach agreement.
Where the consult, cooperate, consult approach fails the recommended next course of action is to involve the contracting PCBU to mediate the disagreement. This is because they have duties, as part of the contracting chain, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.
In addition, it’s important to note that the lead contractor PCBU is likely to be best placed as the site manager, as they have greatest influence and control over what happens onsite. As a result, the lead contractor PCBU must ensure that the controls implemented onsite are as safe as reasonably practicable.
The transport operator author, such as an RCA, rail access authority, airport or port organisations, also have duties under applicable legislation that must be fulfilled. These pieces of legislation require that the safety of workers and transport system users is ensured. This includes approval of road closures, access onto rail, airport or port land and other matters.
The group is made up of representatives from TTM suppliers, utilities, contractors, engineering consultants, road controlling authorities and road workers.
The role of the TTM ISG is to represent the views of the collective TTM industry and to take the lead on how the industry can adopt the new guidance at worksites. NZTA is playing a support role to the TTM ISG to redevelop the wider sector’s training requirements – this will create an uplift in skills that the TTM sector needs to support the shift to risk-based TTM.
A new national training and competency framework has been proposed which will see all major training move to new standards endorsed by NZQA − these will be independent of NZTA.
You can out more about the TTM ISG on their website:
ttm-isg.org(external link)
