Infrastructure for a Better Future

Shared resilience and Māori communities

How are researchers currently seeking to understand the role that indigenous communities play in infrastructure development including post-disaster recovery? How has engineering teaching changed to consider these issues?
As part of our research into Māori engagement in infrastructure, Clare Sinnott, Writer and Researcher at Te Waihanga spoke to Dr Matthew Hughes, Senior Lecturer - Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering at University of Canterbury about shared resilience and Māori communities.

Is our critical infrastructure vulnerable?

Is our critical infrastructure vulnerable? What does New Zealand need to do to ensure that it has the planning capabilities to effectively deal with natural disasters and other events when they occur?
In this episode, Te Waihanga Senior Communications Advisor Simon Thomas speaks to Chair of the New Zealand Lifelines Council Roger Fairclough about the Council's recent Critical Infrastructure National Vulnerability Assessment. Roger spoke about how communities and the infrastructure sector can do more to prepare for events that impact on the delivery of infrastructure and how the interdependence of infrastructure supply means that planning is more crucial than ever.
 
Read the Critical Infrastructure National Vulnerability Assessment on the New Zealand Lifelines Council website: https://www.nzlifelines.org.nz/

Taking the long view – a tale of two bridges

Much of the infrastructure we build today will still be in use a century from now. Would we make better infrastructure decisions if we thought more about the long term?

Planning for an uncertain future

The future is uncertain. While we can do our best to predict what will happen next month, next year, or fifty years from now, we can’t be sure what will actually happen.  
In this episode, Te Waihanga Senior Economist Nadine Dodge catch up with Brad Singh, to learn about how the transport team at Wellington City Council is dealing with uncertainty in their business. Brad talked about many sources of uncertainty – from climate change to labour supply to aggregate availability – and what we can do in the face of uncertainty to plan for future generations.

Thinking ahead: Protecting land for infrastructure

While the future is uncertain, when done well, corridor protection – designating or acquiring land for infrastructure in advance of when it’s needed – can have benefits for day and tomorrow. In this episode of ‘Infrastructure for a better future’, Nadine Dodge, Senior Economist – Strategy at Te Waihanga talks with KiwiRail representatives David Gordon, Capital Planning and Asset Development Officer, and Marija Batistich, Senior Corporate Counsel, about how corridor protection works in practice for KiwiRail.
Corridor protection is discussed in one of our recent reports, ‘Protecting land for infrastructure: How to make good decisions when we aren’t certain about the future’. Our report findings suggest that designating or acquiring land for infrastructure in advance can make it cheaper and easier to build the infrastructure we need, from neighbourhood schools to major public transport routes.Research: Protecting land for infrastructure: How to make good decisions when we aren’t certain about the future | New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga (PDF 6.3 MB)

A global view of infrastructure project costs

Large-scale and complex infrastructure projects, often take longer and cost more than expected, but some places seem to get better results than others. In our latest podcast, we take a global view of infrastructure project costs and why certain places are better at delivering infrastructure on time and in budget.
Peter Nunns Director - Economics at Te Waihanga speaks to Dr. Eric Goldwyn from New York University and the Transit Costs Project, and Liz Innes, Director - Investment and Reviews at Te Waihanga, to take a deeper look into global infrastructure costs.
This sits alongside our report, The lay of the land: Benchmarking New Zealand’s infrastructure delivery costs

Stormwater and resilience

Te Waihanga Principal Advisor - Strategy, Nik Green recently spoke to Senior Advisor - Delivery Christian Gamst about stormwater and resilience. This is part of our work to understand the severity of the January 2023 Auckland Anniversary weekend storm resulting in stormwater flooding in Auckland, the impact of the storm on Auckland’s infrastructure and the issues or weaknesses this event has raised about stormwater management and our infrastructure system.
This sits alongside our report, The 2023 Auckland Anniversary weekend storm: An initial assessment and implications for the infrastructure system.

More than a labour of love

We need our cities to be attractive and inclusive places to live. An important aspect of achieving this is by ensuring our infrastructure services are accessible to everyone. Two Auckland Transport advisory groups – the Public Transport Advisory Group (PTAG) and the Capital Project Advisory Group (CTAG) have been true catalysts for change and have been at the forefront of making Auckland's transport network work for all. Jane Godfrey, Senior Advisor - Strategy at Te Waihanga spoke to Alison McLellan, former representative for Headway, the Brain Injury Association Auckland, and Chris Orr, former representative for Blind Low Vision New Zealand about their work on the advisory groups.

The climate cost of consenting

A recent report commissioned by Te Waihanga looks at how and why the consenting system needs to change for Aotearoa to deliver on it's net-zero targets. Sapere Research Group completed the research.Ross Copland, Chief Executive at Te Waihanga spoke to Corina Comendant, Senior Managing Economist at Sapere about the findings of the report.

Infrastructure in a complex world

A changing macro-economic and geopolitical environment can act as either a headwind or tailwind to better infrastructure. In this complex world how does Aotearoa New Zealand make sure it can deliver successful infrastructure projects? How, and to what, do we shift our priorities as a small country at the bottom of the pacific? How do we compete for the talent we need to produce world-class infrastructure?Geoff Cooper, General Manager - Strategy at Te Waihanga, speaks to David Skilling, Director at Landfall Strategy Group, about these questions and more.