QRS new traffic management division for hire

Quality Roading and Services’s new traffic management division is available for contract across the North Island’s east coast.

The division was created earlier this year in response to a growing national need for trained traffic management specialists, says traffic management project supervisor Jacob Paku. “Our focus is on the safety of our staff, clients, and the public.”

Specialist traffic management is legally required where any activity leads to a temporary road design. This includes activities like fixing, maintaining, or building roads; forestry work, tree services, and electrical contracting.

“Every working crew on a road needs traffic management specialists to assist them. Our team often works in high-risk environments and our responsibility is to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone.”

QRS operations manager and civil infrastructure industry stalwart Anthony O’Sullivan says temporary traffic management staff oversee complex moving parts. “What people don’t realise is that those people have your life in their hands.”

New Zealand’s traffic management procedures have been strengthened in the past two years to include a competency framework for traffic management workers. Mr O’Sullivan says there’s a healthy focus on worker safety but also a requirement to minimise traffic delays.

“The new tighter processes have forced the industry to ask ‘are we doing everything we practically can to prevent harm to workers and the public?’. Whereas in the old days traffic management could be seen as an afterthought, a few cones and signs, these days all critical risks on site are assessed and managed.”

Mr Paku agrees. “Now the industry is ensuring traffic management is a key part of the contract, challenging itself to be doing everything it can to protect workers and the public.”

QRS’s six traffic management staff have traffic management qualifications that meet the Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency Code of Practice. Mr Paku is a qualified temporary traffic management (TTM) mentor, a site traffic management supervisor (STMS) level 2 and 3, and a TTM planner. He joined QRS in 2021 having worked with New Zealand’s leading traffic management company Traffic Management NZ. He has support from Aaron Hoskin who is a TTM mentor, and has STMS level 1, and TTM planning. Other team members include Philly Kapene, Aaron Ruawai, Taylor Tautari, Caitlin Thornton, and Jonathon Rumble, who all have the specialised training needed to work in the team.

QRS has a customised traffic truck, signs, lighting, pavement marking, and protective wear for its staff. The team is available to work as far south as Napier, west to Taupo, and as far north as Gisborne.  

For more information contact traffic management project supervisor jacob.paku@qrs.co.nz, (06) 838 9030, 027 282 4079

Photo caption: Breaking it down Quality Roading and Services traffic management supervisor Jacob Paku holds a lunchtime meeting away from the fog line on State Highway 2 between Napier and Wairoa with traffic management site supervisor Aaron Ruawai . QRS’s traffic management team carries out plan designs and site installation and removal work for a range of industries at rural and urban sites across the North Island’s east coast. 

24 May 2022

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