New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA)

25 August 2009 - 1 Comments

Tags: productivity, economy, report, transport,

This case study has been taken from the Spatial Information in the New Zealand Economy - Realising Productivity Gains report, August 2009.

New Zealand's roads are managed by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), a Crown entity established on 1 August 2008 which brings together the functions of Land Transport New Zealand and Transit New Zealand to provide an integrated approach to transport planning, funding and delivery. Efficient road assessment and maintenance management (RAMM)[1] is important to achieving NZTA's objectives, and spatially enabled RAMM software is the asset and planning tool for state highways.[2]

To put the importance of NZTA in context, it should be noted that the transport system plays a central role in the performance of the economy. Road transport is particularly important to regional New Zealand and the export industries which drive these local economies. Seventy per cent of all freight in New Zealand goes by road, and about 84 per cent of people go to work by car, truck, or motorbike. Reflecting this importance and the size of the challenge of maintaining an efficient and effective transport system, NZTA is responsible for Crown revenue of $2.8 billion and allocation of $2.0 billion, with an operating budget of around $240 million per year (NZTA, 2009).

Figure 8: NZTA Spatial Viewer and some of its layers over Wellington area

Between 2004 and 2006, Transit NZ (one of NZTA's predecessors) put in place a strategy to articulate and implement a vision for the use of geospatial information. As a result of this a Spatial Viewer (SV) application was developed to integrate all available data. This is now fully operational and utilises more than 200 GIS layers and other associated non-spatial data - staff can query the data and access other data sources.

The Spatial Viewer has improved data representation and created significant potential to undertake more advanced spatial analysis in future. Access to data has improved, including to staff in the field, and the technology can assist senior managers in their decision making. Implementation of the project has increased staff awareness about available data and it is likely that new initiatives will emerge from this advance in the use and availability of spatial data within NZTA.

High Speed Pavement Condition surveys

High Speed Pavement Condition surveys and SCRIM (skid resistance) surveys are undertaken annually on the entire State Highway network using the SCRIM+ survey vehicle operated by WDM Ltd.

Data collected as part of the survey includes:

• Skid resistance (SCRIM) in both wheelpaths
• Texture (mean profile depth) measured in both wheelpaths and mid lane
• Roughness
• Rutting
• Geometry (gradient, crossfall and curvature)
• GPS road centreline coordinates
• Network Video

Results of this survey provide NZTA with road condition information and NZTA also utilises the outputs for highway performance monitoring, treatment site selection, trend analysis and deterioration modelling. The road network centreline coordinates captured by the GPS also provides key network spatial data that is used in the NZTA Spatial Viewer.

Linking GIS Video Viewer to Spatial View Stage 3 (2009)

Video data are collected during road condition surveys and stored in a dedicated database. Video data are useful to a wide group of users including those involved in highway maintenance, transport planners' capital project teams, consultants and contractors. They are also useful for answering public enquiries and help improve customer service. The video viewer saves both staff time and resources by allowing an initial assessment at the desktop in the office, with a site visit only if required.

The new functionality of the SV was proposed because the existing video network was difficult to navigate. Users of the SV requested the additional functionality and benefits of the system are seen in the spatial context (visual), the video image context map view and in the form of improved navigation. Furthermore, likely long term benefits were seen not only in terms of direct usage of the viewer, but also in terms of follow-on benefits such as a safer working environment, and the reduction in the carbon footprint which would come from more efficient roading.

Figure 9: NZTA intergrated GIS with video viewer

The video link has been used by approximately 218 internal and 150 external users (total of 368) and this is expected to increase to 500 within the first year of implementation.  The internal productivity improvement value was estimated around $436,280/year for the internal users (1,700 productive hours) and $353,588/year for the external users (1,170 productive hours). Based on these estimated conservative figures the total productivity improvement within a year for 500 users for 11 month/year would be $984,097. With 500 users, each user would need to save 20 minutes per week to result in a saving of over $1 million, which "seems reasonable".[3] This type of productivity benefit alone would be equivalent to 0.4 per cent of NZTA's annual operating budget.

Asset design and planning

Most "asset design", i.e. construction design, is still based on field surveys[4] however LiDAR, road scanning information and GPS are also used in some projects. Where it is used, it can be of high value in avoiding the need to survey locations as part of the asset design process. Digital elevation models developed using LiDAR data can also enable additional assessment work for environmental approvals (water, air quality, noise modelling). Integration of data enables location of data in the fraction of the time using existing (or recently existing) methods even though the data are often held electronically. As mentioned before, NZTA is not as yet reaping these benefits on a routine basis, but rather on a selective project-by-project basis.

Figure 10: LIDAR in the context of road planning and design

Summary of benefit to NZTA

The above discussion indicates that NZTA and its predecessors have benefitted from adopting and integrating various modern spatial information technologies (and data), and this will flow through to the New Zealand road system and ultimately benefit road users.

An important benefit is the availability of road condition survey data matched to location data which means NZTA staff can make some initial assessments from their desktop with attendant savings, compared with the previous situation under which there would have been more intensive use of surveyors to develop projects.

For the improvement on the spatial viewer alone in 2009, the extent of the saving was estimated at up to 0.4 per cent of NZTA turnover. GIS systems may have had a larger initial impact in percentage terms when they were first introduced. Combined with other benefits reaped at least since around 2004, NZTA is highly likely to be seeing significant net productivity benefits to the organisation, however defined.

NZTA contractors benefit from road construction efficiencies as well (further discussed in Section 2.5), and insofar as some of these benefits are passed on to NZTA in terms of better or more "road per dollar" this will allow NZTA to improve and extend its services, and once again ultimately benefit the road user and tax payer.

InfoConnect - user benefits

The InfoConnect initiative was launched by Transit New Zealand which is now part of NZTA. InfoConnect's aim is to ensure that road users have access to timely and accurate road condition information. InfoConnect can be used by interested parties (e.g., software developers) to access verified Highway Info data, which includes state highway road and traffic information, webcam coverage in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, planned road works, unplanned road closures and delays, maps, and holiday traffic information.

There is no charge for access to the InfoConnect APIs (application programming interfaces), as one of the aims of InfoConnect is to allow for innovative uses of the data that would not necessarily be possible if access was limited.

Some examples of projects that are already delivering benefits to the public include:

• HowsTheTraffic.co.nz - Parkside Media used the Auckland Traffic API to provide a visual dashboard of traffic in the Auckland area for the readers of their Car and SUV website
• AA Roadwatch - the AA have integrated TREIS traffic alerts into a dedicated visual map of traffic events around the country
• MultiCam - Stanton Software used InfoConnect to develop iPhone Apps for web cams in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. These are currently for sale in Apple's iTunes App Store
• NZ Traffic - independent software developers GivUsADeal used the Traffic Web Cams API to build an iPhone App that will let users view all traffic webcams on their iPhone
• Auckland Traffic - Gravitini have developed an iPhone App that lets users see the congestion status of Auckland's motorways, and then touch one of the web cam icons to get an image of the location

As emphasised in this report, benefits from using spatial technology go beyond 'pure' productivity benefits - in NZTA's case, wider benefits will include improved road conditions (comfort) and travel time savings (public users who benefit from InfoConnect projects) as well as potentially extending to the saving of lives where a better transport system reduces accidents and fatalities.

 

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References

[1]    Manu King noted that RAMM should not be represented as an enterprise-wide system for NZTA.

[2]    This is also the proprietary term for the core product by CJN Technologies who have been leaders in NZ road asset management software for 25 years.

[3]    Manu King, pers. comm.

[4]    ibid.