Development of approved organisation and Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency regionally delivered transport programmes

Under the Land Transport Management Act(external link), v is required to set the form in which RLTPs are to be submitted for consideration for the NLTP.  This, in turn, prescribes the form in which approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) need to submit their proposals for inclusion in an RLTP.  Waka Kotahi sets these requirements and provides the tool to submit transport programmes through Transport Investment Online(external link).

The criteria that apply to activities proposed for inclusion in an RLTP and the NLTP are less stringent than those that apply to activities for which funding approval is sought. This means that activities may be proposed for inclusion in an RLTP or the NLTP at an early stage of their development, when limited information is available. Activities proposed for funding approval need to be developed sufficiently to enable the approval under s.20 of the Land Transport Management Act(external link).

Approved oganisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) are expected to apply Waka Kotahi’s planning and investment principles in developing their transport programmes and activities.

Waka Kotahi expects that the principles of the Business Case Approach will be used for all new activities proposed for inclusion in the NLTP.  Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) are required to use the Business Case Approach for all transport planning activities. 

All activities that are proposed for funding assistance under the NLTP must be supported by robust evidence. 

Robust evidence is to be provided in Transport Investment Online fields and uploaded supporting information, including strategies, business cases, activity management plans, regional passenger transport plans, economic evaluation worksheets, etc.

Further detailed evidence, particularly for programmes, may be required to be presented during NLTP negotiations with Waka Kotahi.

When developing activities, approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) must ensure that required fields in Transport Investment Online  (external link)are completed with the information relevant to the activity's business case stage and its readiness for either NLTP inclusion or funding approval. 

Since Waka Kotahi expects that approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) will monitor the impacts of their land transport investments, investment performance measures need to be selected by approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) and agreed with Waka Kotahi The Investment Performance Measurement pages provide further information on which activities must have performance measures and Waka Kotahi measurement framework which includes a range of performance measures.

Waka Kotahi requires that the Road safety audit procedures must be applied to the development of any improvement or renewal activity that involves vehicular traffic, and/or walking and/or cycling, proposed for funding assistance from the NLTP.  The Road safety audit page provides details of when the audits must be undertaken or how to declare an exception.

Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) are expected to optimise their programmes when they develop them for RLTP inclusion.

At an activity level, this involves option identification and selection of the preferred option. This may involve use of multi-criteria analysis to short list options and should involve incremental assessment to select the preferred option from the short list, as well as using first year rate of return (FYRR) to help inform timing decisions.

At a programme level, it involves sequencing and programming of components and relative scale of components to achieve efficient allocation of resources over time and best value for money. The programme support rating should reflect this optimisation.

Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) should structure their transport programmes by:

• Activity class - which will be largely managed through the use of the correct Transport Investment Online module.
• Programme business cases -  more complex activities or combinations of activities that target a defined problem in a specific area or corridor should be identified and linked to a programme business case under the Business Case Approach. In some cases these activities will be interdependent, i.e. the benefits of one activity cannot be fully delivered without delivery of others, and their delivery achieves synergies in the transport system. Theses should be identified in packages within the programme business case. 
• Programmes – comprising routine, low risk activities that are delivered in a continuous manner, eg road maintenance programme or public transport services programme.
• Improvement projects of over $1,000,000 estimated construction cost are set up as stand alone projects in Transport Investment Online. No project under $1,000,000 construction cost should be developed as a stand alone project, unless it is a Promotion of road safety and demand management activity.
• Low cost, low risk projects of less than $1,000,000 estimated construction cost - each approved organisation and Waka Kotahi (state highways) region at least will receive a base funding allocation, provided it has met the conditions of funding for low cost low risk improvements. Detail is set out under work category 341 for roading minor improvements and work category 532 for public transport low cost low risk improvements.

Approved organisations and Waka Kotahi (state highways) are required to use the Investment Assessment Framework to determine the assessment profiles of their activities, and to inform their decisions to submit activities for inclusion in an RLTP

Each activity will also be assessed by Waka Kotahi, using the Waka Kotahi Investment Assessment Framework. The resulting assessment profile is used to ascertain the activity’s priority for inclusion and programming in the NLTP. 

Waka Kotahi prioritisation of activities for programming in the NLTP utilises the Investment Assessment Framework's priority orders, which sets out the assessment profiles and their priority order.