State highway pavement delivery process review

Waka Kotahi has recently concluded a review of state highway pavement delivery process (the Review) following a number of pavement failures on projects. The Review considered the current end-to-end system delivery requirements for new pavements and rehabilitation construction. This work was led by an independent reviewer, Lindsay Crossen of Lincross Contracting.

Waka Kotahi presented the outcomes from the Review to executives of Civil Contractors New Zealand (CCNZ) on 13 March 2020.

The Review notes that Waka Kotahi’s organisational systems and process for end-to-end delivery are well formulated and sound but makes nine key recommendations for improvement.

The Review recommendations are to:

• review our pavement guidance to align performance expectations to levels of risk
• review and upgrade risk profiles and better define integrated performance criteria for some pavement types
• refine technical matters that may influence integrity in design, aggregate acceptance, construction practices and conformance testing
• consider benefits of industry expertise being engaged for design on capital projects
• review procurement requirements to highlight expectations of reliability and serviceability performance requirements over the longer term
• implement quality assurance principles through all end to end pavement delivery phases
• strengthen emphasis on real time quality testing and information sharing
• provide industry leadership to support a sustainable pavement industry and
• facilitate ongoing training in the use of current standards and guidelines.

Waka Kotahi accepts all nine recommendations and is setting up a steering group to prioritise and implement the recommendations in collaboration with industry.

View the January 2020 report [PDF, 1 MB]