In 2019/20 the output of this outcome was the Infrastructure Pipeline.
Outcome: The construction sector has a clear forward works programme which the sector can rely on.
Infracom has taken the following actions:
- Built internal capability and capacity to deliver a reliable pipeline
- Developed and maintained a pipeline of works published on Infracom’s website
- Continued to grow the base of contributing procuring entities.
Infracom’s Infrastructure Pipeline tool was developed by the ITU within the Treasury and was first published
on 9 May 2019. The tool, which is now hosted on Infracom’s website, addresses the issue of the lack of a visible coordinated pipeline of work in New Zealand. It aims to be a single, trusted source of information for the construction industry, enabling the sector to plan in order to enhance the use of resources and its
capability and capacity.
Improvements have been made to the Infrastructure Pipeline tool since it was established, including the addition of new project statuses to allow earlier visibility of upcoming projects and the addition of more data fields.
The Pipeline includes projects from the Government’s New Zealand Upgrade Programme. It also includes projects from high-growth councils and capital-intensive government agencies. Transport was the largest
sector represented on the Pipeline as at 30 June 2020.
Pipeline context pre-Infracom
Consultation between government and the private sector in the first half of 2019 identified a consistent theme: the need for a long-term forecast of infrastructure spending and projects to help the market focus, plan and resource. This became the Infrastructure Pipeline.
The ITU within the Treasury was established as a precursor to Infracom and, through quarters one and two of 2019/20, built the prototype pipeline with the involvement of the five central government contributing agencies:
- Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of Health
- New Zealand Defence Force
- Department of Corrections.
Pipeline evolution under Infracom
- Infracom was established on 26 September 2019, and the prototype pipeline was transferred to Infracom
and established on the new website platform. Users can filter by sector, region, organisation, and cost
range. There is also a downloadable copy of the data available in an open-data format. - By November 2019 the Pipeline had grown to 506 projects from 15 contributing organisations. The
organisations were largely those that Infracom had engaged with either through its agency/project support
and advisory function or through more general engagement and included councils, water services’
providers and central government agencies. - In December 2019 efficiencies were established in the pipeline data-acquisition process. These included
shifting approvals to use the data to each organisation rather than requiring them to get Ministerial approval
after collecting the data. - The March 2020 pipeline update added data from the existing 15 organisations augmented by a further four
contributing agencies, with project numbers increasing to 2,290. - The data fields that Infracom captures for each project were increased to include information on the funding status and procurement type. The range of projects was expanded to include those in the early planning
stage. This was in response to feedback requesting earlier visibility of projects for more advanced planning. - In April 2020 the long-term Pipeline Strategy, in development since January 2020, was signed off by the
Board. The Strategy involved the inclusion of additional data displayed using interactive dashboards and
mapping, and an investigation into the creation tools to replace the manual collection of data.
Publications
We published a response to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE’s) National
Construction Pipeline Report (September 2019).
The impacts of COVID-19
The arrival of COVID-19 had significant impacts on forward works plans. As a result, Infracom encouraged all
organisations submitting to the Pipeline to advise it of any changes in project information as soon as they were
confirmed. This enabled Infracom to update the Pipeline as these were received.
In May and June 2020, the Major Projects and Advisory team’s focus shifted to providing advice on
the COVID-19 recovery stimulus and wider recovery efforts, such as the rapid mobilisation work for the
Construction Sector Accord. The opportunity was taken to assess business intelligence tools for use on the
website for alternative displays of data in dashboards and maps, which resulted in refined draft dashboards
and improved data presentation. Infracom shifted from a scheduled Pipeline update model to more reactive,
dynamic updates of project data.
Infrastructure Pipeline Progress
Measuring performance
Measure | Activity | Target 2019/20 | Outcome 2019/20 |
Improved flow to market of major projects. |
Number of projects published on Pipeline. |
Create Pipeline, gather information and publish to website. |
2,290 projects published to Pipeline. |
The Pipeline is a trusted source of information. |
Number of entities contributing. |
Create Pipeline, gather information and publish to website. |
19 entities contributing. |
Improved visibility of future infrastructure projects. |
Pipeline satisfaction survey. |
New measure to establish baseline. |
Survey deferred until the 2020/21 financial year, due to COVID-19 recovery work taking priority in quarter four of 2019/20. |
Improved visibility of future infrastructure projects. |
Extent to which the content is up to date and extent to which it is relied upon. |
Within three months. | Updates occurred on 12 November 2019, and 18 March 2020. The scheduled June update for 2019/20 was deferred due to COVID-19 and more reactive dynamic updates of project data were implemented. |
Costs to deliver the output to achieve Outcome 2 |
Updated forecast 2019/20 ($000) |
Actual 2019/20 ($000) |
Revenue from the Crown | 567 | 567 |
Interest | 1 | 1 |
Total output revenue | 568 | 568 |
Total output expenditure | 381 | 265 |
Net surplus/(deficit) | 187 | 303 |
Infracom forecast a net surplus for 2019/20 anticipating it would not be spending all Revenue from the
Crown in its first 10 months of establishment. The actual net surplus for Outcome 2 was higher than forecast
mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 delaying workstreams. The delayed workstreams will continue to be
progressed in 2020/21.