Published: 21 July 2021 | Category: Technical advice note | Audiences: Road traffic engineers & consultants, Roading contractors
Contractors who want to achieve or maintain prequalification need to be aware that Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has made changes to the Physical Works Prequalification Pack. These updates reflect the recent changes to the Waka Kotahi physical works and health and safety prequalification processes. The new pack has been uploaded to the Waka Kotahi website and is available for immediate use.General information.
Contractors who want to achieve or maintain prequalification need to be aware that Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has made changes to the Physical Works Prequalification Pack. These updates reflect the recent changes to the Waka Kotahi physical works and health and safety prequalification processes. The new pack has been uploaded to the Waka Kotahi website and is available for immediate use.General information.
The prequalification system is an acknowledgement of contractors’ qualifications and experience – and it simplifies the tendering process, saving time and effort for the users. Only contractors who have been through the prequalification process and are registered as ‘prequalified’ by Waka Kotahi may be eligible to tender for state highway contracts without having to go through the preliminary formalities every time.
Physical works prequalification is available to four categories (each with four levels);
This move is aimed at reducing costs for our contractors and simplifying health and safety prequalification, which are part of our commitments under the Construction Sector Accord (CSA). By reducing the cost and effort it takes to become prequalified with Waka Kotahi, we hope to remove barriers to entry to doing business with us.
Physical works contractors actively working on Waka Kotahi projects and sites, are contractually required to submit Health and Safety Performance information to Waka Kotahi. This information covers workplace incidents, near misses and performance summary information e.g. number of safety briefings, number of health and safety audits etc. The information is primarily used by Waka Kotahi to understand trends, identify strategies to reduce overall harm and work with contractors to support/educate them.
For the past three years, ISNetworld (ISNET) was the system in place that enabled external contractors to submit their prequalification and monthly health and safety performance information to Waka Kotahi. As noted below, from 15 June 2021 the contract with ISNET ended and alternative arrangements are now required.
Waka Kotahi has moved to a new health and safety and physical works prequalification system and is no longer using ISN to manage prequalification. This move officially took place on 15 June 2021.
Physical works prequalification will now take place via a free-to-use in-house system. All applications and document submissions will now take place via email to prequalification@nzta.govt.nz
Health and safety prequalification will now take place through the not-for-profit Tōtika Scheme administered through Construction Health & Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ). Tōtika is a single framework that brings all health and safety prequalifications together under one umbrella. Its aim is to create one standard against which a contractor must prequalify one time and to eliminate contractor duplication of effort.
Updates to the prequalification pack include:
Health and safety contractor performance reporting at Waka Kotahi will move to this free-to-use in-house system from Friday 9 July 2021. Having the tool in-house should make this tool nimbler and more flexible. Waka Kotahi is looking to work differently with industry in how we support the management of health and safety. The new reporting includes questions that will allow us to better capture health and safety data and behaviours for industry. This will allow for smarter data, quality insights and future planning and modelling.
Our longer-term objective is to provide reporting back to industry on best practice and learnings. This is something as an industry we have all had a desire to do. Capturing this data now will allow us to start measuring this.
For health and safety prequalification, in advance of the expiration of your ISN subscription, you must:
For contractors who now wish to prequalify for both physical works and health and safety:
All contractors wishing to complete prequalification should:
Authorised access to the health and safety reporting system will also be provided per contract/project. Waka Kotahi will notify each contract/project of access details. Contractors will soon receive a link to two training webinars on Tuesday 6th July and Wednesday 7th July. It is recommended you attend one of the webinars to see the system in action and ask any questions. The webinar will also be recorded and available to view later via a private YouTube link.
Waka Kotahi will be working with industry over the next few reporting cycles to capture feedback on how you are finding the new questions and to make changes where appropriate.
We would like to thank you for your ongoing patience and understanding while we work to build a new system that will better serve industry’s needs.
We will look to keep improving this system, so your feedback is important to us. Please email us at notifyhs@nzta.govt.nz
The Contractor Expectations: incident notification, investigation and reporting document can be found here:
Contractor health and safety expectations: guidance for supply chain partners
Author: Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Published: June 2021
Version: 10
Location: https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/prequalification-information-pack/
To submit documents or if you have any questions or feedback, please contact the Prequalification Team at prequalification@nzta.govt.nz
Signed:
David Darwin
Chair, Ratification Group
Vanessa Browne
Delegated Approver
For more information on the Asset Management Data Standard project, visit our website www.nzta.govt.nz/hip
