The third annual Future Roads conference saw a record crowd gather at Claudelands Events Centre in Hamilton on 20 and 21 November 2024.
More than 330 delegates from local government, the contracting and consulting community, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA), and the service and supply industries attended last year’s Future Roads event.
The event format was expanded in 2024 to include an additional stream, two stages in the exhibition area, roundtable discussions and the launch of the Rising Star Award at the dinner.
Conference organiser Matt Freeman says he was pleased with the attendance in what had been a challenging year for the sector. ‘Our new content ideas proved popular, including the roundtable discussions,’ he says. ‘This allowed for more niche subjects to be discussed and gave greater choice.’
The headline theme for the conference was ‘Optimising your roading investment’. There were specific streams across materials, procurement, technology, leadership and logistics.
International speakers included Narain Hariharan from Graymont in the United States, who spoke about lime‑based binders; and Jacqui Hansen from IPWEA in Australia, who discussed asset management.
The leaders’ panel featured Dean Kimpton from Auckland Transport; Murray Robertson from Downer; Guy Spence from WSP; Fiona Carrick from Te Waka; and Andrew Clark from NZTA; and was facilitated by Adrienne Miller from Urban Development Institute of New Zealand.
NZTA gearing up for a big 2025
NZTA spoke on a number of subjects as it lines up a big year around the Roads of National Significance and Roads of Regional Significance roading projects, new procurement models, and state highway maintenance changes.
Clark spoke on the replacement of the Network Outcomes Contract state highway maintenance contracts, known as the Integrated Delivery Model. NZTA released the Integrated Delivery Contracts (IDCs) for tender in February 2025. These new contracts are part of the new Integrated Delivery Model (IDM) and are expected to be in place for up to 10 years across 17 regions.
The new contracts are intended to encourage long‑term investment in plant and people, shift away from lump‑sum payments, and give NZTA more input on asset management through standard design specs and work program planning.
Clark says the agency is simplifying its key metrics and is keen to see more competition. Firms that improve the performance of the network, and meet their time, cost and safety targets, will likely get more work in the following year.
The rollout is presenting some challenges for the industry, however. Higgins General Manager Andrew McRae says existing providers effectively have all their maintenance contracts at risk at once.
‘If they are lucky, they get all the work they were seeking,’ he says. ‘Alternatively, they could lose all their maintenance work or, worse, win more work than they actually have capacity to take on.
‘We’re all probably thinking quite carefully about how we are taking on that challenge.’
Inaugural Rising Star Award winner
Fatima Leung-Wai, Construction Delivery Manager – Central at Auckland Transport, was the inaugural winner of the New Zealand Roading Industry Rising Star Award.
The award celebrates a stand-out person aged under 40 in the New Zealand roading sector, defined by their achievements during their career to date.
Entries were sought from the broader roading industry, including individuals working in roading and transport teams within councils, engineering consultancies, roading contractors, NZTA, and the supply and materials sectors. The 2024 Rising Star Award was sponsored by Jacobs.
From a strong pool of entrants, Leung-Wai was shortlisted into a group with three other finalists, including: Angela Parsonage, Associate Director – Pavement NZ, AECOM; Mohit Vyas, National Technical Lead – Digital Engineering, Downer; and Willem de Bod, Managing Director and Owner, Rolco.
Future Roads was supported by the Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia, the Aggregate and Quarry Association, Civil Contractors NZ, Urban Development Institute of New Zealand, Institute of Public Works Engineering NZ, SNUG, Transporting New Zealand and Infrastructure New Zealand.
The annual Future Roads conference returns to Claudelands Events Centre, Hamilton, on 19–20 November 2025.