NZ Utilities Advisory Group (NZUAG)

An efficient transportation network is critical to New Zealand’s economic performance, so is an efficient utility network.  At present, access to the transportation corridor by network utility operators is governed under a variety of statutes and is enshrined in legislation. 

There are a number of inconsistencies between the various pieces of legislation and a variety of approaches are taken by relevant authorities to administering access into the transportation corridor.  The outcome is a sub-optimal environment where there is a lack of clarity and certainty for all parties.

The Government is interested in improving the present inadequate statutory framework as part of its objective to improve the performance of the economy.  One of the key ways to achieve these objectives is to establish a national code of practice for working in the transportation corridor.  It is believed that this offers significant potential to reduce cost and risk, improve the coordination of works between stakeholders, provide better outcomes for all stakeholders and generally provide an excellent platform for the development of world-class infrastructure.

The New Zealand Utilities Advisory Group (NZUAG) has managed to garner across the board support from utilities, councils, road controlling authorities, Transit and Ontrack to develop a new National Code of Practice for Working in the Roads. The Code will set rules, processes and standards for all work undertaken in transportation corridors (road and rail) by utilities, Road Controlling Authorities (RCA’s) and OnTrack. It will also consider costs, charges and cost sharing.

A Statement of Intent has been signed between Territorial Authorities, Transit NZ, ONTRACK & Utilities to promote a collaborative working relationship and to enable a number of issues relating to utilities in road and rail corridors to be addressed.

The Statement of Intent confirms the relationship between the parties is based on a spirit of goodwill and co-operation. The parties agree to work together to reach consensus where possible or document the issues where consensus cannot be achieved.

NZUAG Working Party

A small working party within the NZUAG called the Director’s Group (DG) has been established to draft the Code.  Two utility representatives have been elected from Telecom whose primary responsibility is Telecommunications and Vector Ltd whose primary responsibility is the electricity and gas sector.  Their role is to ensure the views of all utilities are reflected in the deliberations of the DG.

The working party is currently setting up as four sub-groups (ie Corridor Planning and Management, Technical Content, Dispute Resolution, and Above Ground Structures). Provision has been made for a telecommunications representative on each group and industry groups can have input into the Code through their representative.