Among other things, the ITSN runs electronic speed signs on highways.
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
A project to upgrade the transport technology network essential to highway safety and responding to crashes hit such big problems it had to be redesigned, rebuilt and has been delivered 18 months late.
But the Transport Agency (NZTA) is refusing to reveal much about its troubles upgrading the “critical infrastructure” of the Intelligent Transport Systems Network, or how the original $19 million budget was impacted.
It withheld all four reports on the project that were within the scope of an Official Information Act request lodged by RNZ, to protect current commercial negotiations.
See the requests made under the Official Information Act here.
The system, the ITSN, links all of the country’s transport operations centres that keep highways running smoothly. It runs the electronic message signs, and smaller electronic speed signs, lane control, ramp signals and CCTV on highways.
Its overhaul quickly ran into “issues”, concerns, an investigation, a rebuild and a redesign, according to a brief overview in NZTA’s annual review, and the patchy OIA response.
The agency’s worries about the new system’s security escalated to the point that “this has had a major impact on what was originally contracted”.
The ITSN was among a web of ageing, weak transport tech systems assessed since 2018 as being at “critical risk” from being hacked or breaking down.
The agency embarked on an overhaul programme about two years ago, and said on Thursday it had delivered a range of upgrades worth $55m – though some systems have not been fixed.
The upgrades reduced outages of critical systems from 71 hours total in 2021-22, to 57 hours last year. Most systems ran over 99.5 percent of the time, last year’s annual report said.
“However, we experienced several extended outages in critical systems due to ageing technology, which is scheduled for replacement,” it said.
The report rated just three of the agency’s eight critical tech systems as “fit for purpose”. The new ITSN was, at that stage, unfinished.
Two systems still remain in limbo – the National Incident and Event Management System (NIEMS) and the Traffic Road Event Information System (TREIS).
These are among those “defined as critical because of the potential impacts on operational and business delivery if they fail”, the annual report said.
The ITSN also runs CCTV on highways.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
NIEMS and TRIES would be reviewed this year.
“They will both continue to be used until such a decision is made and delivery plan established,” the agency told RNZ.
The aim must be that it goes more smoothly than for the Intelligent Transport Systems Network job, which finally linked the new network to an operations centre in a “pilot” only in February. All the network’s various services are still being migrated to it.
The agency withheld the documents detailing what went on, from RNZ, despite the public interest in government IT projects that go awry, most recently at Oranga Tamariki, and at Fire and Emergency, which dumped a payroll rebuild after spending $29m, as OIA papers show.
The new network was meant to be finished in mid-2022.
Instead, One NZ, which won the contract, had run into “multiple issues” by September 2022. (The tech was not connected to the road network at the time.)
The contractor began making so many changes, that NZTA became alarmed, hit pause and began investigating.
It had no written documentation of this, so could not release it under the OIA, the agency told RNZ.
Its annual review provided a few more clues: “It was decided by One NZ to redesign/rebuild the network.
“The rebuild was paused temporarily in June 2023 to investigate the impacts to NZTA and security concerns.
“In parallel, NZTA has made significant changes to its approach to security, and this has had a major impact on what was originally contracted.”
Once the upgrade restarted, later in 2023, the agency started up weekly meetings with One NZ to try to keep things on track.
Testing began last December ahead of going live in February 2024.
Waka Kotahi refused to release to RNZ a “Deviation Escalation Response” report done about the rebuild and redesign in August 2023.
It also refused to release two reports done this year about the risks and the impacts on the end product – what the public ultimately got for its money.
Additionally, it refused to release a review into how the pilot in February went.
RNZ asked it to reconsider this, but the agency said on Thursday it would not.
“This is because active negotiations are underway between NZTA and One NZ and the release of the material you are seeking, at this point in time, would prejudice the ability of NZTA to carry out those commercial negotiations.”
The $18.75m budget to design and build the network had been spent, it added; another $5.8m is going on keeping a “network test environment” in place for 12 years.
One NZ declined to comment, saying that was up to the Transport Agency.
As for the two safety systems where no rebuild has even begun – the NIEMS and TREIS – when RNZ asked for copies of any reports about these to the agency’s board, NZTA responded that the board and its subcommittees “have not considered any reports or papers” on them.
RNZ is seeking an update on the overall tech remediation programme.
