Local road and state highway improvements

This page relates to the 2024-27 National Land Transport Programme.

Introduction

This page describes the local road improvement and state highway improvement activity classes and provides relevant work categories and further information.

Activity class definitions

The definitions for these activity classes in the Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) 2024 are:

Local road improvements:

• is for the purpose of investment in new local roads and improving existing local roads, and end-of-life bridge and structures renewals.

State highway improvements:

• is for the purpose of investment in new state highways, improving existing state highways, and end-of-life bridge and structures renewals.

Government Policy Statement on land transport 2024(external link)

Government expectations

We (NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) as investor) expect that investments from the local road and state highway improvements activity classes will contribute to outcomes sought by the government and the Minister of Transport’s expectations set out in the GPS 2024.

Government expectations (webpage yet to come)

Qualifying for National Land Transport Programme consideration

To qualify for inclusion in the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) and subsequent funding approval:

• any proposed activity is eligible by meeting the definition of the local road improvement or state highway improvement activity class in the GPS and the appropriate work category definition in this knowledge base.

• any improvement activity must be in relation to a public road (that is, any road that is available to the public on a full-time basis) for inclusion in the NLTP and subsequent funding approval.
• all regionally delivered road improvement activities proposed for inclusion in the NLTP must be included in a regional land transport plan (RLTP).
• approved organisations and NZTA (for its own activities) must comply with the NZTA Procurement manual and procurement rules, as well as any relevant standards and guidelines as listed in the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi standards and guidelines register for land transport.

Procurement manual

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi standards and guidelines register for land transport

Road improvements work categories

Road improvements activities described in the following work categories are eligible for inclusion (most of which are common to both activity classes):

• Work category 171: financial grants
• Work category 216: bridge and structures renewals
• Work category 321: new traffic management facilities
• Work category 322: new or improved bridges and structures
• Work category 323: new roads
• Work category 324: road improvements
• Work category 325: seal extension
• Work category 331: property purchase – state highways
• Work category 332: property purchase – local roads
• Work category 333: advance property purchase
• Work category 341: low-cost, low-risk roading improvements (webpage yet to come)
• Work category 421: travel demand management and behaviour change
• Work category 357: resilience improvements.

Multi-modal elements and improvements

Where multi-modal elements are required as a condition of an already-in-place consent, these elements can be funded from the local road and state highway improvements activity classes. In these cases, we (NZTA as investor) expect approved organisations and NZTA (for its own activities) to minimise costs needed to deliver these multi-modal elements.

The government expects that funding in these activity classes will not be used to invest in new multi-modal improvements, that is, cycleways and busways, or fund traffic calming measures such as speed bumps, raised crossings and in-lane bus stops.

Further information

For prioritisation of local road and state highway improvement activities, see:

2024-27 NLTP Investment Prioritisation Method