29 September 2020 – International engineering, design and advisory company Aurecon has partnered with the Construction Sector Accord, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Infracom (NZ Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga), to develop a toolkit to help fast track the delivery of projects.

The Rapid Mobilisation Playbook provides practical tools to help local and central government organisations get projects ‘shovel-ready’, which will be critical in supporting New Zealand’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

In developing the Rapid Mobilisation Playbook, Aurecon drew on its experiences on fast-tracked projects and programs such as the $1B North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery alliance (NCTIR), which was delivered under an accelerated consenting framework to enable repair of earthquake damaged road and rail routes and reconnect the region to the rest of the South Island.

The Playbook will assist over 100 organisations in bringing projects in the $10-50M range to construction through key tools, principles and guidelines in a way that is:

• Fast: get to the construction start line quickly in line with stimulus project time frames
• Meaningful: protect jobs, support job transitions and upskilling, retain skills in the sector, invest wisely for the future, alignment of goals with the Construction Sector Accord
• Safe: protect markets in the medium to longer term and safeguard public funds

The Playbook is intended for organisations and project teams who don't often undertake large-scale projects or projects on an accelerated time frame. It will support the construction sector to build capability and apply risk-based decision making, by providing practical guidance on:

• Paralleling and accelerating stages in the mobilisation process
• Best practice governance arrangements to protect your process
• Which procurement and delivery models to consider (in line with Construction Procurement Guidelines)
• The trade-offs and risk/management implications of moving quickly through project phases

Aurecon New Zealand Managing Director Tracey Ryan said the Rapid Mobilisation Playbook would be an invaluable resource for the industry:

“Aurecon is delighted to have had the opportunity to apply our deep project delivery and management experience to assist the New Zealand Government to develop this critical set of tools for the construction industry. The Rapid Mobilisation Playbook will help organisations get projects off the ground faster, while delivering on broader economic, social and environmental outcomes – all of which will be crucial in New Zealand’s recovery from COVID-19.”