Activity classes and work categories are groupings of similar outputs from investments through the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP). Investment proposals have to identify the correct activity classes and work categories as part of the NLTP inclusion and funding approval process.
Activity classes are defined in the Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS) and are used by the minister to provide direction to Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency on funding allocations for types of investment. The activity classes are high-level groupings of outputs, eg walking and cycling improvements, local road maintenance.
Waka Kotahi structures the NLTP around the activity classes to:
In the main, activities that deliver similar outputs are grouped into work categories.
These are are accounting classifications enabling expenditure to be tracked by work category and type of output, and cost comparisons to be made by output type between organisations and regions.
However some work categories are defined in a practical way so that minor operations, maintenance or renewal activities are sometimes included in other work categories to facilitate efficient assessment, programming and delivery of activities.
An example is work category 341: Low cost low risk improvements in the road improvements activity classes, which incorporates walking and cycling activities as well as roading activities. It would be inefficient to establish a separate walking and cycling low cost, low risk improvements category.
While work categories generally link to activity classes, eg bus services are within the public transport activity class, the same work category may appear in more than one activity class.
For example, the new roads work category appears in the state highway improvements, local road improvements, regional improvements activity classes as well as in the Crown-funded Accelerated Regional State Highway Programme.
