Identifying projects
First, councils must identify potential land transport activities to include in their transport programmes. They consider many factors, including:
- community wishes
- their responsibilities for land transport services and infrastructure
- national and regional land transport strategies and policies
- the current performance and condition of land transport services and infrastructure.
In developing activities for their transport programmes councils also draw on:
- implementation plans in regional land transport strategies
- implementation plans in strategies they develop
- activity management plans or regional public transport plans
- responses to address standalone issues, problems or opportunities.
Learn more about these land transport programme inputs.
Setting and programming priorities
Councils prioritise all the potential activities, programming those with the highest priority as soon as they can be implemented within available funding and resources.
Linking into the Long term council community plan (LTCCP)
Councils then incorporate the transport programme into their draft LTCCP, which they make available for public consultation.
Confirming the programme
When a council adopts its LTCCP, it essentially confirms that it will implement all the included activities within the scheduled timeframe, once funding is available.
Find out more
The process councils follow in developing transport programmes is set out in our Planning, programming and funding manual.
How councils prioritise land transport activities
Councils prioritise potential land transport activities to achieve the best value for money for the least cost from the funds available. Generally, councils use a prioritisation process that matches that one we and regional transport committees use. This gives a realistic evaluation of whether the activity can gain funding from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF).
While the programming process considers many factors, the priority and a feasible start date for the activity are key considerations. Activities with a high priority are programmed as soon as is feasible, depending on:
- the funding available over time from each source
- the tasks that need to be undertaken before an activity can be implemented, eg selecting the scope of a future activity, completing detailed design, gaining resource consents, and purchasing any land
- the capacity of the construction sector and what other construction works are also underway or proposed to start
- the timing of pre-requisite activities or events, eg when the planned development of a new suburb is about to reach the stage where road widening is warranted.
Usually, transport programmes include more activities than a council expects to implement. This ensures they can maintain the momentum of their overall programme in the event of any individual activities experiencing unforeseen delays.
