All “Infrastructure” topics

This article examines implications for the provision of infrastructure arising from the Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020 and the National Policy Statement on Urban Development.

In December 2019, the draft New Zealand Rail Plan (‘the plan’) was released by the Government. It outlines the Government’s long-term vision and priorities for the future of the national rail network. This vision includes a national rail network that provides modern transit systems in our largest cities, and enables increased volumes of freight to be moved off the roads and onto rail.

Five-hundred new mobile cell towers around rural New Zealand are in the works with the second phase of the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI2) which is now well underway. The five-year programme will increase the country’s mobile land coverage by 25% and is set for completion in 2023. When the build programme is finished, 33,000 more rural Kiwi households and businesses will be able to access mobile services offered by New Zealand’s three mobile network operators – Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees – for the very first time.

The New Zealand infrastructure industry is currently undergoing both policy and structural reforms, and its direction will be governed by a new entity called the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga.