Councils must adopt a risk-based approach to temporary traffic management from 30 June 2026 to receive National Land Transport Funding, Transport Minister Chris Bishop has announced.
The Government allocates in excess of $1 billion annually to council transport projects via the National Land Transport Fund. Many councils have been requiring contractors to follow an outdated Code of Practice that prescribed exact spacing between road cones, a document exceeding 500 pages.
NZTA now applies practical guidance requiring contractors to assess actual risks at each site rather than following prescriptive rules. The agency's temporary traffic management spending declined by approximately $46 million in the last financial year.
Nine councils have switched to the practical approach: Whangarei District Council, Auckland Transport, Hamilton City Council, Tauranga City Council, New Plymouth District Council, Porirua City Council, Marlborough District Council, Tasman District Council and Christchurch City Council. All councils provided transition plans to NZTA by December 2025.
New contracts must apply the New Zealand guide to temporary traffic management from 1 July 2026, with current contracts required to transition by 1 July 2027. 85% of applications to NZTA's Road Controlling Authority Temporary Traffic Management Centre now use the risk-based approach.
Bishop said "NZTA has shown you don't need armies of contractors painstakingly measuring the gaps between road cones like butlers setting the table at Buckingham Palace". He added: "Safety will always come first. But there's a world of difference between sensible safety measures and treating every suburban pothole like a motorway reconstruction project."