Road users will soon be breathing easier as Christchurch’s major utility companies adopt national bestpractice guidelines for working in the road. The idea is to make road works more efficient, which should mean fewer complaints.

Christchurch City Council’s agreement went into effect on 1 November and In Parties to the Christchurch agreement are Telecom, TelstraClear, Transit, Orion, Rock Gas, Petroltac and Vodaphone. Wellington is set to follow early next year.

The Code of Practice guidelines were developed by Standards NZ and the New Zealand Utilities Advisory Group. The code promotes national consistency, setting out the roles and responsibilities of the local body, utility providers and contractors.

It includes guidelines for road works notifications, excavation, backfill, surface reinstatement, materials, quality assurance, safety of works, traffic management and the management of the environmental effects of construction.

Christchurch City Council Asset Policy Engineer, Weng- Kei Chen, spearheaded the effort to get the utility companies in Christchurch to come together. He says Christchurch’s performance-based culture meant it was easy for the utility companies to take ownership of theissues and be part of the agreement. “It’s all about working together,”he says.

Chen says the new code is transparent. Everyone knows their rights and responsibilities when working in the road. For instance, contractors are left in no doubt as to what the standard is they need to comply with when reinstating the road.

“If they do not put back the road to the required standard they foot the bill, not the taxpayers,” he says. He hopes this will result in consistently good road quality across Christchurch and this will mean less complaints and happier road users. Ed Beattie of Telecom agrees. “We welcome a process that will deliver better co-ordination of road works,” he says. “Trench sharing means cost sharing. We are for anything that reduces our costs as this means we can deliver a more efficient service to our customers.”

Tim Davin, chairman of the Utilities Advisory Group says a pressing issue the group had to address was the quality of the road asset and the varying standards of road excavation and reinstatement.

“Invariably this led to frustrated road owners, frustrated utility companies and disrupted road users,” he says. “We’re hoping a national Code of Practice will address these issues. Having Christchurch and Wellington on board will hopefully start the ball rolling. The more councils and utility companies that sign on to the code the smoother the roads will flow.”