The latest review of land transport service delivery arrangements in the Ruapehu District has seen the new contract for district road maintenance and resurfacing going to Inframax Construction Ltd.

The council’s land transport manager Andrea Nicol says Inframax's bid for the work tipped a consortium offer from current suppliers Downer NZ, Jilesen Group and JJ Walters who had won the business from Inframax in 2014.

“Legislation requires Council to review our significant supplier arrangements at regular intervals or when any major changes to service levels are being considered.

“The exhaustive tender process weighed a range of key criteria including price, supplier skills, support systems, data collection and quality and Council wanted to thank all those who took part.

“Over the last seven years Downer NZ, Jilesen Group and JJ Walters have made a significant contribution to Ruapehu's land transport network and Council thanks them for their hard work over this period.”

The new Inframax contract will have a value of about $10 million per annum and a term of eight years which has been set to allow investment in equipment and people development.

“Skill retention is one of the important contract considerations and Inframax has committed to holding a job fair seeking local staff in the near future.”

Nicol says changing funding priorities within Waka Kotahi NZTA presented challenges to Council in maintaining levels of service on the road network.

“The transport team are forced to adapt their work program accordingly and maintain current standards with less funding in some areas and more in others.

“For this new contract round, a key focus was to bring in a stronger operating framework to help unlock greater operating efficiencies to compensate for the growing funding and cost pressures.

“The new framework aims to do this through better collection and sharing of critical network information to inform and trigger routine work and maintenance planning.

“We are looking forward to working with Inframax again to deliver an efficient and effective land transport network that supports the aspirations of Ruapehu’s rural communities.”