Wellington network is highly complex with three tunnels, a section of Smart Motorway, low volume rural roads, high tourist driven demand in the summer months, the primary connections to the airport and port serving the Capital, and a mountain pass that regularly experiences severe winter conditions. Recognising the relatively low level of resilience on key parts of the network, Capital Journeys has developed and expanded the concept of Enhanced Incident Response to provide improved customer outcomes in the event of incidents and other network outages.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Capital Journeys® provides maintenance, renewal and operational services to Waka Kotahi on the Wellington State Highway Network. The contract area encompasses a centreline length of 246 km (331 carriageway km and 685 lane km). Of this, 77km is median divided (17.5km of which is designated as Motorway), and under the One Network Road Classification system, we have a very high diversity of highway types, TTM levels, and traffic volumes using the performance framework in place for the Network Outcome Contracts. Capital Journeys is currently assessed as Outstanding.
CLIENT BRIEF/PROJECT CHALLENGES
Wellington network is highly complex with three tunnels, a section of Smart Motorway, low volume rural roads, high tourist driven demand in the summer months, the primary connections to the airport and port serving the Capital, and a mountain pass that regularly experiences severe winter conditions. Recognising the relatively low level of resilience on key parts of the network, Capital Journeys has developed and expanded the concept of Enhanced Incident Response to provide improved customer outcomes in the event of incidents and other network outages.
OUR SOLUTION
The Capital Journeys® Joint Venture came into effect as a partnership between WSP and Fulton Hogan (FH) in October 2014. Since then, the fully unified team has been a consistently high performer when measured using the performance framework in place for the Network Outcome Contracts. Capital Journeys’ team mantra is not to follow what has been done, but to do it better. That is challenging considering the logistics of maintaining the Wellington Region Network Outcome Contract (NOC), the busiest NOC in New Zealand.
Some early disruptive experiences when the maintenance contract started six years ago focused the joint venture’s attention on developing a rigorous roadworks impact and risk strategy to cover its responsibilities to the customer - road user and neighbour - from end to end of the programme. This strategy saw Capital Journeys awarded Highly Commended in the prestigious IPWEA Excellence in Strategic Planning awards.
