THE standards that infrastructure projects are built to and their costs will have an effect on their management, says former project manager for the Northern road maintenance contract, Stu Haynes.
Mr Haynes said when planning infrastructure projects, thought must be given to the standard of the project, the cost of the project and the maintenance model involved.
“There is always a balance between designing infrastructure to the gold standard, being able to handle the biggest load and costing – lots of money upfront – which we, as taxpayers, don’t always like,” he said.
“This, opposed to doing the minimum and having ongoing maintenance which some taxpayers also don’t like.”
He said this balance was a key part of infrastructure management.
“In New Zealand, people say to me, ‘why don’t we just concrete the roads like Aussie or USA and forget it?’
“That means you will have a beautiful road for say 20 years or more but then when maintenance issues start to appear, it is very expensive to repair.
“A common format for roading around the world is to have a maintenance program which is ‘just in time’, doing enough work to keep vehicles and the public safe without wasting time or money.”
Mr Haynes was employed by the Fulton Hogan Highways Joint Venture in 2012. |
