WC 141: emergency works

This page relates to the 2024-27 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:

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

in respect of infrastructure, facilities and services eligible for funding from the NLTF.

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
• rail network

Local road and state highway maintenance

Rail network

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 NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA; for its own activities in the 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 NZTA (for its own activities in the region) 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, for example 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, for example 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 estimate of the period of time between high intensity rainfall events..

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 FAR for the 2024–27 National Land Transport Programme (NLTP)
  Other funding assistance rates

or

• 100% of the NZTA state highway costs.

or

For KiwiRail activites the funding assistance rate (FAR) is 100% of the net agreed costs of activities eligible for funding within the approved Rail Network Investment Programme (RNIP). Funding must be approved by the Minister of Transport.

Submitting activities for NLTP consideration and funding approval

Approved organisations and NZTA (for its own activities) submit these activities using the emergency works template 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)

For guidance on using TIO, see the TIO learning and guidance page on our website.

Transport Investment Online (TIO) learning and guidance

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 3 years, we (NZTA 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 3 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 – that is, 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 2 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 be referred to the NZTA Board for a decision on a bespoke funding arrangement. While any bespoke arrangement is being negotiated, the NZTA emergency works policy detailed above will continue to apply.

Emergency works process – detail

We (NZTA 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 NZTA (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 NZTA (for its own activities). There is no requirement to notify our (NZTA as investor) regional representative and the investment decision is exempt from the procurement procedure requirements of section 25 of the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (LTMA).
   Land Transport Management Act 2003, section 25(external link)

3. The approved organisation or NZTA (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 of Transport about extreme events.
4. The approved organisation or NZTA (for its own activities) assesses the damage caused by an event and estimates the scope and cost of reinstatement.
5. The approved organisation or NZTA (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, for example work category 140, or from an alternative funding source outside the NLTF.
   Work category 140: minor events

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

8. If outside the delegated authority, the approved organisation or NZTA (for its own activities) will contact our regional representative within 1 week of the event and request an inspection of the damage.
9. Within 4 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 NZTA (for its own activities) applies for funding assistance via TIO. A separate activity is required for each defined event with an event-specific title. Supporting documentation, such as photos, reports and costings, should be uploaded into TIO. No generalised funding applications, for example ‘2014/15 emergency works’ will be accepted.
11. The funding application is decided at the appropriate authority level. If a bespoke arrangement involving an enhanced FAR is proposed, this must be approved by the NZTA 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 NZTA Uneconomic Transport Infrastructure Policy will be applied to all investment decisions for permanent reinstatement of transport infrastructure that is considered uneconomic. If a facility is determined to be uneconomic under the policy, we may decide not to co-invest, in part or in full, in its reinstatement.
  Uneconomic Transport Infrastructure Policy (webpage yet to come)

• Permanent reinstatement to restore levels of transport service is subject to the procurement procedure requirements in section 25 of the LTMA.
• While the NZTA emergency works policy is to reinstate levels of service on a like-for-like basis , we may, where the One Network Framework (ONF) service level is lower than existed previously, decide to co-invest to achieve the appropriate ONF level of service rather than the full reinstatement of service levels. Where the ONF 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 Framework (ONF)

• 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 NZTA (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.