Infrastructure for a Better Future

In this episode of Infrastructure for a better future, Jessie Lea, Special Advisor - Asset Management at Te Waihanga, speaks to Jan Stoker, Senior Strategic Advisor Asset & Maintenance Management at the Ministry of Infrastructure & Water Management, Netherlands, and Murray Pugh, Chief Executive, at Āpōpō, Infrastructure Asset...

In this episode of Infrastructure for a better future, Graham Campbell, Director - Economics & Research at Te Waihanga, speaks to Charles Marohn, Founder and President of Strong Towns, after his recent visit to New Zealand from the United States.

Graham spoke to Charles about his view of the National Infrastructure Plan and how his experiences in the United States align with the key issues in the Plan. This includes managing as...

The estate managed by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) spans the length of New Zealand. It covers 80,000 hectares of land, has over 7,000 buildings and includes every type of infrastructure across its camps and bases except for railway lines - and it used to have those.

With responsibility of such a range of infrastructure it’s no surprise that NZDF made multiple submissions for the first round of the IPP, six of which we...

It seems obvious when you think about it, but somehow, it's easy to forget – infrastructure is all about people. It's not about concrete and construction. These are just means to an end. When the people and communities who collectively use and pay for infrastructure are missing from being a meaningful part of the conversation, it can be hard to tell if infrastructure investment and services are meeting the mark.

Watercare pro...

In this episode of Infrastructure for a better future, Peter Nunns, Acting General Manager – Strategy at Te Waihanga, speaks to Professor Jim Hall, who is the incoming President of the Institute of Civil Engineers in the United Kingdom. They discuss the Commission’s work on a National Infrastructure Plan for New Zealand. Hall emphasises the importance of strategic infrastructure planning, sharing best practices, and add...

We use a number of funding mechanisms to raise most of the money we need to pay for our network infrastructure services. Good infrastructure pricing is needed for efficient and sustainable infrastructure investment.

Sometimes funding approaches are obvious and connected to how much we use, like monthly electricity bills and mobile phone bills. Other times they are far less visible, like fuel excise that’s included in retail p...

How does local government debt finance infrastructure? What are the options and what situations should they be used? In this podcast episode, Te Waihanga Senior Communications Advisor Shelly Biswell speaks to Principal Economist Graham Campbell about our recent research that looks into if local government is debt constrained. We unpack this research and look at how local government debt options have been used in the past. We also l...

In this episode of Infrastructure for a better future, we look at the Carbon Neutral Government Programme, which aims to accelerate emissions reduction in the public sector. In particularly, we look at the work being undertaken by the Ministry of Education. As part of this programme, the Ministry has baselined its emissions across two and a half thousand schools and kura - no easy task. The work is just beginning, but it's already ...

Population growth is one of the biggest drivers of infrastructure services. More people, means more transport connections, more housing and more jobs. Last year, Infrastructure Victoria published research titled Choosing Victoria’s future that sketches out five urban form scenarios and makes the case that when it comes to an urban footprint, we have a certain set of choices that we can make. These choices lead to different so...

We know that teams that reflect our communities can listen better, understand better and better engage with our communities, and together can build better more resilient infrastructure. So why is it that only 11% of infrastructure workers identify as women? In this episode, Te Waihanga Director - Leadership Nicola Richardson speaks to Stacey Mendonça, MNZM, Senior Quantity Surveyor and Estimator at Newcrest Construction, and Co-fou...

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 Engineeri...

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 ...

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 &nda...

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 Offic...

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 Cost...