This blog unpacks the recent BusinessDesk article about our historical approach to road maintenance, what's changing in this space, and provides a practical example from Downer New Zealand - a company who have employed the Mooven platform to deliver smarter worksite methodology. 

We also talk through the highlights of a recent case study that took a look 'under the hood' at just how Downer delivers programs with increased efficiency and outstanding results.

It's a cruel irony that two of the most frustrating things to deal with as a driver are bad roads and road works

This was aptly put in Ben Moores's recent article - it's 2022 and our cities are still grinding to a halt. However, on a daily basis, there are passionate teams and organisations working hard to change that reality.

Moore writes "The approach to road maintenance has been relatively stable for a very long time – avoid the morning and afternoon rush and stop before it gets too late and the noise becomes a nuisance. Then, the age of data came along and with it a plethora of startups looking to bring efficiency to old ways of working. For the transport infrastructure sector, that startup is Mooven..."

Read this latest article in which Micah Gabriels and Downer New Zealand's Oliver Fradley sat down with Technology Editor Ben Moore from BusinessDesk NZ to discuss and unpack the antiquated practices that have underpinned the infrastructure and transport industry’s efforts to build smart and sustainable cities of the future - and how together, they're changing this through putting technology and innovation at the epicentre.

“Most of the decision making, which drives even billion-dollar programmes, is made on those rubber tubes you drive over on the road occasionally – it's this piece of rubber and it counts the vehicles for maybe a week – or a student with a clipboard"

- Micah Gabriels, CEO of Mooven

Infrastructure maintenance company Downer began using Mooven more than three years ago and maintenance manager Oliver Fradley says it has been a boon to planning the company’s roadworks projects.

This article presents the opportunity that Downer had to approach their maintenance delivery model in a new way. In an approach that proved successful for the team at Downer, Oliver Fradley describes it in full detail within the following BusinessDesk article. The full news article is available for free viewing here: Mooven helps roadworks crews plan and work smarter

The recent article demonstrating their ability to reimagine roading programs is just one example of the work they have achieved to look at the wider more holistic impact of programs of work, and turn insights into action by shaping their maintenance methodology to fit the needs of a particular city or project.

“We sat down with the Auckland Transport team and the public transport guys and said...‘We think if we bookend this over two weekends, around school holidays when generally there's a little bit of a lull in the traffic there – and we proved it by some pre-monitoring a couple of months beforehand – we can deliver this over two weekends and two nights in the week’”

- Oliver Fradley, Maintenance Manager at Downer NZ

Case Study: Downer pushes for smarter infrastructure delivery to support Auckland expansion

Playing a key role in creating cities of the future, Downer has been innovating to achieve real productivity gains, cost efficiencies and zero community complaints. The following case study showcases two worksite examples where Downer used a new approach to delivery that delivered tangible and easily repeatable results.

One project detailed here was expected to take 15 days – three weeks of potential impact on businesses and the community – the Downer team were able to dramatically reduce the delivery time of the project by almost three-fold, completing it in just six days. Some of the broader project outcomes that were achieved were:

1. Planned roading works completed in 45 per cent less time.

2. Customer satisfaction up from 88 per cent to 93 per cent by the end of the build.

3. Project reduced greenhouse emissions by 27 per cent.

4. Mitigated safety concerns, minimal need for night works.

5. Made significant savings on traffic management - with an ROI of more than ten times their investment in the Mooven platform.

6. Accelerated delivery with zero community complaints.

Some of the specific ways in which Downer leveraged the Mooven platform to achieve this were:

1. Pre-assessments to inform planning [and longer working windows].

2. Live monitoring of construction impact {with proactive alerts}

3. Detour management

4. Performance monitoring against KPIs

5. Community engagement.

To find out more, read through the full Case Study