Case Study - "A Step Ahead with PLAN.IT.road"

Wanganui District Council continues to lead in roading corridor activity management

The new National Code of Practice for management of transport corridors is about to become mandatory.  This will challenge some local authorities as they wrestle with the impact of new legislation on business processes.  But not Wanganui District Council – they’re confident they’re ahead of the game.  

Protection of community assets and reducing 3rd party damage has always been critical to Wanganui District Council.  Taking ownership of its responsibilities to ratepayers, and thinking forward to productivity gained through streamlined process, Council were keen to adopt solutions that would lead to efficiencies and open dialogue.

With this vision for leadership and innovation, three years ago Wanganui District Council selected a new electronic system for roading activity management.  They selected PLAN.IT.road, an application built to administer and monitor action in the roading corridor.

Roading Compliance Officer Dave Kenning arrived at Council as PLAN.IT.road went live and quickly embraced the benefits.  “Our manager always looks for innovation, a better way to do things.  And though I’m not computer savvy, I picked it up quickly.”  Dave is particularly pleased with productivity gains.   “I can turn a CAR request around in a matter of minutes – a paper-based system would take me five times as long.”

WDC is a Council that understands the new Code of Practice, welcoming the guidance it will give roading authorities.  “The Code will have a huge impact on Councils.  It formalises things you may have done with a hand shake in the past.  It’s going to give us a uniform standard of ethics across the country.”

However Dave does believe that a user-friendly electronic system, encompassing all aspects of corridor management, is essential.  “The Code says the Roading Control Authority must have accurate records of forward works programmes –PLAN.IT.road enables us to do it better, smartly and more efficiently.”

From inception, PLAN.IT.road was developed as a complete web based application that allows all parties involved in any aspect of the roading corridor to efficiently communicate.  Its founders, Jim Coe and Stephen Parker of BureauCo, are dedicated to providing a ‘New Zealand Inc’ service.   “PLAN.IT.road is a web enabled solution that integrates community processes.   It is completely scalable, can consume web services and through an interactive mapping interface, provides an intuitive and flexible tool for work location and description.”

Recent updates currently enjoyed by the roading team at WDC include the latest ESRI software platform, cloud hosting and the mapping interface that Dave simply describes as “brilliant”. 

What’s also made the difference for Wanganui District Council is co-operation from their contracting community - all fully use PLAN.IT.road.  This gives Council complete confidence in their knowledge of roading-related issues.  “PLAN.IT.road gives the Council control and analysis.  At any time we can go into the system and see who’s there, doing what and when.  It also tells contractors and utilities that we’re serious about looking after the roading corridor and protecting people’s assets.”

The Wanganui District Council roading team is proud that they were an early adopter of a roading activity management system and see themselves as providing local authority leadership in this area.  “We’ve never doubted that PLAN.IT.road gives us the edge.”