AUCKLAND TRANSPORT – BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATION FROM SCRATCH – AN ENGINEER’S PERSPECTIVE Jacqueline Robson Manager Investigation and Design North, Auckland Transport, Auckland, New Zealand Abstract Auckland Transport was formed as a result of the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Act 2009. The legislation provided for the dissolution of the eight local and regional authorities in Auckland on 31 October 2010. Auckland Transport is a Council-Controlled Organisation that combines the transport expertise and functions of the former local and regional councils. Auckland Transport is a Road Controlling Authority and is responsible for all of the region’s transport services (excluding state highways) from roads and footpaths to cycling, parking and public transport. On 1 November 2010, 848 people, from various backgrounds and from eight very different local authorities, came together for the first time to take on new roles in new areas and/or new teams. Two years later, Auckland Transport has demonstrated a step-change in the delivery of transport infrastructure and is achieving or over-achieving on almost all of its performance measures. How did this happen? Was it by accident or by design? This paper describes, from an engineer’s perspective, the challenges encountered, the obstacles overcome and some of the methods employed in creating the successful organisation that Auckland Transport is today. Key Words Auckland Transport, council, amalgamation, capital works, investigation, design, project management. Introduction are the budget holders for the projects and have an overarching view of the entire project Auckland Transport (AT) came into being on lifecycle from planning to construction. They 1 November 2010 and, for the first time in also have particular responsibility for Auckland’s history, all of the city’s transport managing professional services contracts to functions and operations fell under the deliver the investigation and design phases of management of one organisation. This a project. There are five teams within I&D. significant change presented both These are South and East, Central, West, opportunities and challenges to the North and the Project Specialists. The organisation as it developed over the past ensuing physical works contracts are the two years and as it continues to develop in responsibility of the Infrastructure the future. Development department. This paper is written from the perspective of Creating Auckland Transport the engineers who work in Investigation and Design (I&D), which is a department within In order to comprehend how much AT has the Capital Development Division (CDD) of developed over the last two years, we need AT. The engineers in I&D manage capital works projects of $250,000 or more. They to understand how AT operated at its Day One in I&D inception. On day one, I&D staff were still working at their old desks. Teams were fractured, with Legislation members spread all over the region. The AT was formed as a result of the Local move to Henderson took three months. In Government (Tamaki Makaurau some cases, staff were decanted into Reorganisation) Act 2009. The legislation temporary accommodation before they were provided for the dissolution of the eight local moved to their final locations. and regional authorities in Auckland (Auckland Regional Council, Auckland City I&D staff still worked on their old computers, Council, North Shore City Council (NSCC), connecting to the AT network via the online Waitakere City Council (WCC), Manukau City Workbench. New computers had to be Council, Papakura District Council, Rodney District Council and Franklin District Council), sourced from overseas and this also took as well as the Auckland Regional Transport several months. Then began the process of Authority (ARTA) and Auckland Regional migrating the legacy project files onto the Transport Network Limited (ARTNL) on 31 new AT servers via SharePoint. This process October 2010. was completed in April 2010. The assets and liabilities of these legacy The ATA migrated the legacy organisations’ entities were transferred to eight new project budgets into SAP. I&D had governing entities, Auckland Council immediate problems matching project (Council) and seven Council Controlled budgets to purchase orders (some were Organisations (CCO), established on 1 migrated to different organisations) and there November 2010. AT is one of these CCOs were also difficulties in raising new purchase and combines the transport expertise and functions of the former local and regional orders and paying invoices. Some councils with ARTA and ARTNL. employees had not used SAP before and none had used SharePoint, so training had to Amalgamation be provided. The Auckland Transition Agency (ATA) was a government appointed body that planned and It very quickly became evident that the new managed all matters in relation to the job descriptions for many of the engineers in reorganisation to ensure that the Council was I&D were significantly different to their old ready to function from 1 November 2010. jobs. Also, some engineers from Rodney, The ATA’s many responsibilities included Papakura and Franklin were not prepared to organisation design and staff transition. The commute to Henderson and so did not take ATA developed a workforce plan for AT and up the positions offered. Only 848 of the staff from the legacy organisations were expected 1020 employees transitioned to AT mapped to approximately 1020 new roles on 1 November 2010, with only 27 of the 41 within AT. The ATA selected the WCC positions being filled within I&D. These offices in Henderson as the head office for issues resulted in immediate staff shortages, AT and the majority of the new roles were additional training requirements and a huge located there. loss of institutional knowledge from the northern and southern districts. The ATA was also tasked with developing finance and business systems for AT. The Business as Usual ATA chose SAP as AT’s enterprise software. Despite the issues, staff within I&D were SAP was used by some of the larger legacy extremely positive in taking up their new organisations, but it was ARTA’s SAP system roles. Most recognised the transition as a that was tailored to the requirements of AT. unique opportunity and relished being part of Microsoft SharePoint was chosen as AT’s the development of the new organisation. document management system. Projects were successfully handed over, kept on programme and ultimately delivered. Staff The Auckland Council Long-term Plan connected and communicated well with other (LTP) 2012-2022 and the Regional Land internal departments, external stakeholders Transport Programme (RLTP) 2012-2015 and the public. The work got done. The LTP sets out what Council intends to deliver each year for the next ten years to Developing Strategy and Identity achieve the vision of the Auckland Plan. The RLTP lists all the planned transport activities New strategic plans (both statutory and non- for the next three years and is used to statutory) that bring the legacy plans together prioritise applications for NZTA funding. were required as a result of the amalgamation. AT’s strategic direction must The LTP and RLTP were developed align with the strategic plans and coincidentally with the Auckland Plan and this programmes of Council, the New Zealand timing presented significant challenges. AT Transport Agency (NZTA) and Central had to generate a ten-year programme of Government in order to meet objectives, work without having the benefit of clearly targets and funding requirements. identified strategic objectives. Council imposed extremely tight deadlines for The Auckland Plan and the Integrated delivery, so the opportunity to incorporate Transport Programme (ITP) project manager’s feedback was limited. The Council’s Auckland Plan was adopted in need for single point accountability for the March 2012 and sets out the spatial vision LTP was not identified until late in the and outcomes for the growth and process. The resulting LTP and RLTP were development of the Auckland region for the adopted in June 2012 but relied heavily on next 30 years. Auckland’s vision is to the legacy strategies and plans for direction. become the world’s most liveable city. The transport outcome is to create better Going forward, as Council’s supporting plans connections and accessibility within and AT’s ITP are adopted, AT will be better Auckland, across New Zealand and to the positioned to develop the next LTP and RLTP world. In order to deliver on the Auckland around the newly developed strategic goals. Plan, AT was set five targets and these are Lessons learnt with regard to consultation summarised in Figure 2 in Appendix A. The and accountability have already been Auckland Plan is supported by the Unitary incorporated into the process for the Plan, the Long Term Plan, Area Plans and development of the 2013-2014 Annual Plan. other strategic plans. The Statement of Intent (SOI) and the AT’s response to the Auckland Plan is the Auckland Transport Annual Report ITP. This suite of documents also has a 30- Each year, AT must complete a Statement of year timeframe and is currently under Intent. This sets out the objectives, nature development. The ITP includes but is not and scope of activities undertaken, and limited to the following: performance targets for AT for the coming • Asset Management Plans (adopted) three years. The objectives are aligned with • Regional Public Transport Plan (draft) the Auckland Plan, the Long Term Plan and • Road Safety Plan other strategic plans and programmes. • Active Transport Plan AT is also required to produce an Annual • Corridor Management Plans (CMP) Report and to have financial and performance information audited. The Annual Report describes how AT has performed against the objectives set in the SOI. In 2011/2012, AT achieved or over-achieved on almost all of its performance measures. Branding As AT is funded by others and does not have Building a ‘brand’ is key to establishing an the ability to borrow, cash flow must be organisational identity.