Regional Transport Committee
11 December 2024
Regional Transport Committee Minutes
Meeting held in the Council Chamber
36 Water Street, Whangārei
on Wednesday 11 December 2024, commencing at 10:00am -
12:30pm
Present:
Chairperson,
Councillor Joe Carr
Deputy
Chairperson, Councillor John Blackwell
FNDC Councillor,
Steve McNally
WDC Councillor (Alternate),
Phil Halse
NZTA Waka Kotahi
- Director Regional Relationships, Steve Mutton
KiwiRail
Programme Director Northland, Eric Hennephof
In Attendance:
Full Meeting
WDC Mayor, Vince
Cocurullo
FNDC Councillor
– alternate, Ann Court
WDC GM
Infrastructure, Jim Sephton
NRC Group
Manager - Community Resilience, Louisa Gritt
NRC Transport
Manager, Chris Powell
NRC Secretariat,
Haylee Labelle
NZ Transport
Agency Waka Kotahi – Principal Investment Advisor, Martin Taylor
NRC Regional
Transport Coordinator, Kayla Gunson
WDC Programme
Manager - Road Safety Promotion, Nicole Korach
AA
Representative, Tracey Rissetto
NRC Policy
Specialist, Michael Payne
NZ Transport
Agency Waka Kotahi - Regional Manager System Design, Kathryn King
NZ Transport
Agency Waka Kotahi – Lead System Planner, Brian Waddell
Northland Road
Safety Trust, John Williamson
FNDC Manager
Transportation Team Development, Margriet Veenstra
FNDC Maintenance
Lead, Apikali Rokobigi
The Chair declared the meeting open at 10am with karakia by
Jim Sephton.
Housekeeping (Item 1.0)
Apologies (Item 2.0)
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Moved (Halse / Blackwell)
That the apologies from KDC
Councillor Ash Nayyar, WDC Councillor Simon Reid, KDC Councillor (alternate)
Rachel Williams, FNDC Transportation Services Manager Rob Gilmore, NRC
Councillor Tui Shortland, NRC Councillor Peter-Lucas Jones, NRC Councillor
Jack Craw FNDC Mayor Moko Tepania, NRC Councillor Geoff Crawford, FNDC Tanya
Proctor, KDC Matt Tucker - GM Service Delivery for
non-attendance be received.
Carried
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Declarations
of Conflicts of Interest (Item
3.0)
It was advised that members should make declarations
item-by-item as the meeting progressed.
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Confirmation of Minutes - 1 October 2024 (Item 4.1)
Report from Haylee Labelle, Personal Assistant
Community Resilience
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Moved
(McNally / Blackwell)
That the minutes of the Regional
Transport Committee meeting held on 1 October 2024, be confirmed as a true
and correct record and that these be duly authenticated by the Chair.
Carried
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Receipt of Action Sheet (Item 5.1)
Report from Haylee Labelle, Personal Assistant
Community Resilience
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Moved (Carr / McNally)
That the action sheet be
received.
Carried
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Regional Land Transport Plan 2021/2027 -
National Funding Assistance Uptake Report
(Item 6.1)
Report from Chris Powell, Transport Manager - Northland
Regional Council
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Moved ( Halse / McNally)
That the report ‘Regional
Land Transport Plan 2021/2027 - National Funding Assistance Uptake Report’
by Chris Powell, Transport Manager - Northland Regional Council and dated 12
November 2024, be received.
Carried
Secretarial notes: Jim
Septon (Whangarei District Council)
- Transport Choices program progressing.
- T2 lane work progressing well
- Rose Street upgrade on schedule.
- Reallocation of projects with local share
- On track to achieve targets for the year.
·
Cr Steve McNally (Far North District Council)
- Apikali provided an update, projects are on track in
the Far North.
- In line with transport minister’s
‘back-to-basics’ approach
·
Cr Carr
o
Positive feedback received regionally for NZTA from
contractors
- Increased government funding is helpful.
- Less disruption from roadworks working well.
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NZTA Waka Kotahi Update for Te Tai Tokerau (Item 7.1)
Report from Steve Mutton, NZTA - Director Regional Relationships,
Te Tai Tokerau me Tāmaki Makaurau
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Moved (Mutton / Blackwell)
That the report ‘NZTA Waka
Kotahi Update for Te Tai Tokerau’ by Steve Mutton, NZTA - Director
Regional Relationships, Te Tai Tokerau me Tāmaki Makaurau and dated 13 November
2024, be received.
Carried
Secretarial notes: Steve
Mutton thanked the RTC for their support over the last 12 months.
Mangamuka Gorge reopens
20/12/24 but there will be stop/go management in place to complete the
remainder of the work in the downward slope. Will have completed 88 lane km
by the end of November on the reseal sites pavement programme. Sitting at 97%
on the pothole target vs government target of 95%. The final reseal of the Brynderwyns
has been delayed until Nov 2025 , NZTA wanted to do now however feedback
received from the business community asked not to do now. Involved a pavement
specialist in the decision making who is confident the seal will last until
Nov 25, and any repairs prior can be a nighttime traffic closure. Geotech
investigation has commenced on Warkworth to Te Hana for the northern corridor
and will be running events over summer about the project. Section 2-3 Te
Hana-Whangarei will be confirmed in first quarter of 2025. Still looking at
preferred routes for 4-laning and not finalising until first quarter 2025 The
bridge deck has been completed on Loop Road and on track to open in third
quarter 2025. New speed control rules and the implications for the road
controlling authorities was discussed. Confirmed that variable speed limits
will be in place 30min before and after school and this doesn’t need to
be electronic. There is no requirement for the RTC to be involved in speed
limit changes under the new rules.
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Regional Road Safety
Report (Item 7.3)
Report from Kayla Gunson, Regional Transport
Coordinator; Nicole Korach, Project Manager - Road Safety Promotion and Chris
Powell, Transport Manager - Northland Regional Council
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Moved ( Carr / Blackwell)
That the report ‘Regional
Road Safety Report’ by Chris Powell, Transport Manager –
Northland Regional Council, Nicole Cauty, Road Safety Project Manager, Kayla
Gunson, Regional Transport Coordinator, and Nick Marshall, Transportation
Strategy & Planning Lead, dated 29 November 2024, be received.
Carried
Secretarial notes: There was
a road safety stand at the Whangarei AMP show 7 December with road safety
partners. Engaged with more than 700 members of the public and won best trade
site at the show. Nicole thanks Steve Mutton for NZTAs presence at the show.
Roadsafe Taranaki attended with a seatbelt simulator which is a resource
Northland road safety partners will have access to. There has been two months
with zero fatalities on the road which hasn’t happened in over 5yrs.
Nationally there has been 52 less deaths than last year. Has an upcoming
campaign ‘Patience to Paradise’. NZTA are taking over safety
camera from Police, there are some trials underway for measures other than
speeding however there is no legislation to enforce.
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Committee Members
Priorities and Updates (Item 7.4)
Report from Chris Powell, Transport Manager - Northland
Regional Council and Kayla Gunson, Regional Transport Coordinator
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Moved (McNally / Carr)
1. That
the report ‘Committee Members Priorities and Updates’ by Chris
Powell, Transport Manager - Northland Regional Council and Kayla Gunson,
Regional Transport Coordinator and dated 12 November 2024, be received.
2. The
supplementary verbal updates provided by Regional Transport Committee members
be received.
Carried
Secretarial notes: Steve
Mutton responded to query on the two bridges on SH14 via email and copied
others in, walking and cycling facilities had been queried however there is
no funding so wont be allowed for on these bridges, the work undertaken was
for strengthening purposes.
Cr Halse – To be able
to confirm subsidy rate earlier would be ideal. There has been better liaison
between Councils. Four lanning will impact Whangarei greatly
Cr McNally – Taken
a look at the overall strategy of road management to ensure contracts
and work programme align with the Ministers changes to GPS, NLTP, RLTP and
our LTP plus prior plans to improve roads across the Far North. This
tactical approach was triggered by this RTC 2yrs ago and it is good to see
changes that have been implemented from the Ministers office down to district
council level. Also good to see the realisation that the funding model needs
adjustment and work is progressing on the funding model at central
government. Has concerns that staff don’t understand the bigger
picture so governance needs to work on ensuring staff understand that the
back to basics, prioritised incremental improvements are planned to have a
lasting impact, which is quite different to the reactionary way they have
become used to. Rethink of traffic management to have workers kept safe and
have money spent on road improvements has been well received by contractors
and the public. Far North is reviewing RAMM data to fact check data accuracy
It has been disturbing to hear that some of the maintenance work specified in
the contracts have not been done for many years. FNDC will have to rectify
some of the issues identified when developing the new maintenance contracts.
RAMM review should assist this.
Jim Sephton –
Maintenance contracts come out on Friday these are 9yr duration. There will
be a focus on inspections in house and alongside is a renewal panel.
The plan is to get contractors involved earlier and ensure a smart approach
to traffic management.
The chair thanked everyone
for their contributions to the RTC this year. Getting resilience and route
security is priority work
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Conclusion
The meeting concluded at 11.07am with Karakia by Jim
Sephton.