New Zealand’s Transport Minister and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff announced a $31 billion infrastructure package for Auckland city. The Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) 2021-31 will invest in the city’s critical transport infrastructure and services. Mayor Goff says that this is the largest capital programme allocated to Auckland transport infrastructure (Congestion to worsen, … [Read more...]
NZ’s Uptake of Public Electric Buses and Infrastructure Demand
To help achieve New Zealand's net-zero emissions target by 2050, its Ministry of Transport has announced in January 2021 that it will decarbonise its public transport bus fleet by 2025. It also targets 2035 as the year that it decarbonise entirely all public transport buses, which means that the government will start to purchase zero-emission public transport buses or electric buses as soon as … [Read more...]
NZ’s Roading Database Standardizing Road Network Performance is World’s 1st
The online tool, One Network Road Classification Performance Measures Reporting Tool (ONRC PMRT), is built for the Road Efficiency Group (REG) and a result of a collaboration between several new Zealand's institutions: New Zealand's Local Government, the Transport Agency, 69 road controlling authorities, the Department of Conservation, cities and district councils around New Zealand. The NZ … [Read more...]
Asset Management Career in the Water Infrastructure Sector Pushed
In the USA, many water infrastructure upgrades are going to be needed in the next couple of decades. There is a growing concern, however, that with many laborers in this field set to retire soon, there may not be enough people to do the jobs. Brookings Metropolitan Policy Programme, based in Washington D.C., has recently been thinking through this problem and has held a conference in hopes … [Read more...]
Integrating Climate Change into Road Asset Management
The technical report "Integrating Climate Change into Road Asset Management" is a climate adaptation resource that we recommend your reading. Prepared by Theuns Henning, Susan Tighe, and Ian Greenwood, with the overall direction of Christopher R. Bennet, this technical report provides governments, road authorities, and development partners with practical guidance on how to integrate climate … [Read more...]
Infrastructure Asset Management Impacts of the Electronic Vehicle Disruption
Tony Seba has published an updated lecture: The Electric Vehicle Disruption - End of Oil 2030 Having attended a lecture by Tony Seba two years ago, I have found his analysis coherent, well-researched, and well worth taking note of. If you are involved in transportation infrastructure management, or you own an internal combustion engine vehicle, then this presentation is well worth your … [Read more...]
Fitting the Great Lakes Region Roads with Green Stormwater Infrastructure
In the Great Lakes regions of both the USA and Canada, infrastructure managers are considering how they could use road runoff by creating a green Stormwater infrastructure to handle the excess water that is often rapidly channeled to nearby ponds, rivers, or lakes. Often, if the water runs into these natural water sources untreated, it can become a source of pollution, as well as wasting the … [Read more...]
Will I Buy a Tesla Model 3 and Why Does It Matter to Infrastructure Asset Management?
A few days ago the American electric car maker Tesla announced details of its Model 3 car, priced from USD $35,000. The Model 3 will also be available in some more countries, including New Zealand where I live. Seating 5 adults, and with a range of 215 miles (346 km) per charge the Model 3 is potentially a breakthrough vehicle for electric vehicles (EV's) The projected release of the Tesla … [Read more...]
America’s Crumbling Infrastructure Inspires Finnish Video Game INFRA
When you think of first-person video games, you usually imagine soldiers, guns, aliens, and general violence, right? Not so for a Finnish video game developer who has designed a game focused on puzzle-solving and repairing dilapidated infrastructure whilst avoiding disasters like falling bridges and burst pipes. City Lab reports: "It was actually America’s dangerously outdated roads and … [Read more...]
Is it Time to Stop Growing Cotton in the Arizona Desert?
In the middle of the dry, Sonoran Desert of Arizona, the Wuertz family (and several others) have been farming cotton for generations. This was once considered an exciting accomplishment, but now it weighs on their consciences, as this now unneeded crop siphons so much of Arizona's limited water supply. The farmers understand that they could plant many other, less-water-consuming crops, but … [Read more...]
Disaster Preparedness – How Infrastructure Asset Management Planning Helps
On 25 May 2015, for several days, Texas was hit hard by severe storms, flooding, and tornado warnings. Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster in 24 counties in addition to 13 counties that were mobilized earlier. Based on forecasts, the weather was only expected to worsen throughout the week, which may cause the Governor to add more counties to the disaster list. Unfortunately, … [Read more...]
Dr Natalie Jackson, Population, Demography and Change
In April 2015, Dr. Natalie Jackson, New Zealand's preeminent research demographer, gave a presentation hosted at the Waugh Infrastructure Management offices in Timaru to an audience of New Zealand local government transportation and water utility engineers and Waugh Infrastructure Management staff. The presentation provided an update from the previous February 2013 presentations on … [Read more...]