Collaboration on corridor issues has begun

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14 May 2002

COLLABORATION ON CORRIDOR ISSUES HAS BEGUN

LGNZ Media Release

Utility network companies and councils met in Wellington recently in an effort to reduce the number of times streets and roads are dug up.

Many of the national network of electricity and tele-communications cables and gas, water and sewage pipes run under roads, but following industry deregulation, the number of utilities has grown and so has disruption to traffic. In Wellington, for example, the number of applications to trench has gone from 600 to 6000 per year in the past decade.
The highly successful Utilities Conference brought industry people including gas, electricity and telecommunication utilities, councils and government representatives together to discuss the competing uses of the road corridor.

Local Government New Zealand Chief Executive Peter Winder says that some of the major issues facing the operation of utilities in the road corridor are that there is lack of coordination between companies using the corridor.

He says that the conference succeeded in bringing organisations with an interest in the road corridor together to work out a solution that would benefit all parties.

"Company representatives agree that something needs to be done about the lack of co-ordination between operators.

The challenge is if you're going to use a common corridor, which is what the roadways provide, then we should share that with each other and go into common trenches, or common ducts - instead of each operator digging trenches separately."

Currently nine different acts of Parliament govern utility operators' rights and responsibilities and roading authority powers. Wellington Councillor Alex Shaw wants one piece of legislation which promotes co-operation and gives councils more power.

Communications Minister Paul Swain has welcomed the co-ordinated approach being taken by utility companies and road owners towards resolving the issue of utility access to the road corridor.

Speaking at the conference he indicated the Government was willing to work in partnership with utilities, councils and Transit NZ on road access for utilities.

New Zealand Utilities Advisory Group Chairperson John Hutchings says that some of the projects the group are currently working on will help to overcome the problem. These include: the development of a Code of Practice for work in the road corridor, promotion of training, preparation of a methodology for calculating costs and charges, improvement of valuation consistency, consideration of the Resource Management Act mechanisms for addressing the amenity issues of overhead cables, improvement of the continuity of utilities in disaster events, coordination of utilities information systems and Corridor Management Agreements.

During the course of the conference many issues were raised - some of which are being addressed by the Utilities Advisory Group but there were additional ones. To view the addition issues and conference speeches and outcomes Click Here. This draft schedule will be considered by the Utilities Advisory Group in the near future.

During the conference the collaborative approach was supported by all speakers.
And it was agreed that the Minister's invitation to make a formal representation to the Government, from the conference, would be accepted.