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Transportation Infrastructure Geotechnology (2023) 10:1186–1207
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TECHNICAL PAPER
A Review ofAggregates forLand Transport Infrastructure
inNew Zealand
DougWilson1· MinhKieu1 · MingyueSelenaSheng1· AjithSreenivasan1·
VivienneIvory2· BasilSharp1
Accepted: 22 September 2022 / Published online: 7 October 2022
© The Author(s) 2022
Abstract
Aggregates are an important non-renewable resource and the primary raw mate-
rial for land transport and building infrastructure. New Zealand as a country has
an abundant endowment of rock minerals suitable for aggregate for the construc-
tion, maintenance, and recycling of public and private infrastructure. However,
due to a deficit in infrastructure planning and development for a number of dec-
ades, strong population growth in many areas and much of New Zealand’s public
infrastructure is coming to the end of its useful and/or economic life — there is an
increasing demand for aggregates in many regions of New Zealand. Some regions of
New Zealand have difficulties sourcing appropriate materials locally for infrastruc-
ture purposes, and there are increasing sensitivities to the extraction of aggregates
from communities and iwi/hapu (tribes) who have experienced and seen the effects
of poor industry extraction and environmental practices and the lack of monitoring
and regulation of consent conditions. Little appropriate data is currently available
either nationally or within regions to sustainably plan, manage, use and reuse/recy-
cle aggregates for various public or private infrastructure and therefore to enable the
forecasting of future aggregate demand. This paper develops a better understanding
of the supply and demand issues both nationally and within regions with the aim
of informing a future aggregate strategy to better manage aggregate resources. The
paper reviews New Zealand and international literature, reviews aggregate and land
use consent data, and evaluates novel methods of EROAD truck transponder data to
evaluate aggregate haul distances. Finally, we provide recommendations on how to
better manage aggregate supply and demand in New Zealand.
Keywords Aggregates· Transport infrastructure· Pavement· New Zealand·
Mineral resources
* Minh Kieu
minh.kieu@auckland.ac.nz
1 University ofAuckland, Auckland, NewZealand
2 WSP New Zealand, Wellington, NewZealand
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1 Introduction
Aggregate is any coarse- to medium-grained particulate material, such as sand,
gravel, crushed stone, or any other material used for construction purposes.
Aggregates provide the necessary compressive strength while taking up a bulk
of space. They may be used alone for unbound railway ballast and road pavement
layers or may be mixed with cement or bituminous material to form a bound con-
crete, asphalt mix or mortar for construction (Christie et al. 2001). Aggregates
are the most mined and most used material in the construction industry, second
to water (Menegaki and Kaliampakos 2010). The aggregate market plays a major
role in the economic development of New Zealand. Increased demand can also
be considered a consequence of economic development while creating significant
employment opportunities.
Although they are present in abundance in most countries, including New
Zealand, aggregates are still considered a non-renewable mineral resource. With
increased consensus about environmental effects, cultural values, and sustainabil-
ity imperatives, current practices in the planning and extraction of virgin mate-
rials are not considered sustainable. The challenge is ensuring access to appro-
priate materials geospatially by connecting supply and demand. Failing to do so
would increase emissions and congestion and accelerate infrastructure deteriora-
tion (Langer and Tucker 2003). From an environmental and social perspective,
some of the problems with aggregate material extraction are noise, pollution,
disturbing waterbeds, and visual hindrance. Some of the economic consequences
of the current aggregate production methods include supply–demand mismatch,
increasing price of infrastructure and deterioration, loss of nearby land value, and
less incentives to use recycled materials.
The ultimate aim of this paper is to better understand transport sector require-
ments in relation to the access, supply, demand, and use of aggregates to ena-
ble sustainable sourcing of materials in a specific case study in New Zealand.
This will help in the development of a national coordinated strategy and action
plan to optimise material use within the transport and wider infrastructure sector.
This paper sheds light on some of the practices currently employed (successful
or unsuccessful) to manage the supply and demand of aggregates and to enable
improved planning and use and reuse of the resource in a more sustainable man-
ner. The specific objectives of the research are fivefold:
• To understand the current and predicted future national picture for supply and
demand of aggregates in the transport and broader construction industry to
inform a national sustainable aggregate sourcing strategy for New Zealand
• To understand how aggregate supply and demand forecast data is currently
collated/reported to inform decision-making
• To establish a baseline of current use of different aggregate materials, includ-
ing recycled and re-used materials
• To inform development of methodologies/tools to enable robust collection/fore-
cast/reporting and geospatial representation of national supply and demand
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• To make recommendations for improving access to and supply of sustainable
aggregate resources
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. First, Section2 reviews and
discusses some of the key challenges and issues to be addressed for sustainably
managing the supply and demand of aggregate in New Zealand. Section3 analyses
aggregate and land-use consents, as well as a novel telematic data to investigate a
possibility of a national picture of aggregate demand and supply in New Zealand.
Finally, Section 4 discusses and recommends an integrated effort across the trans-
port authorities in New Zealand for the development of this national picture and
strategy before Section5 concludes the study.
2 Key Issues withtheSustainable Use ofAggregates inNew Zealand:
Evidence fromtheLiterature
New Zealand has a large supply of quality aggregates (endowment), but it is une-
venly distributed geo-spatially and not necessarily close to demand for infrastruc-
ture. New Zealand has a relatively low traffic volume road transport system when
compared to some northern hemisphere countries due to having a low population
density per square kilometre. This low tax base for a significant road network length
(approximately 94,000km of road network for approximately 5 million people) has
meant that the road pavements are predominantly unbound flexible granular pave-
ments. Even new expressways and motorways around the major urban centres of
New Zealand are designed with relatively thin layers of asphalt mix pavements.
Although the aggregate supply is technically large nationally, current sources
close to centres of demand are becoming depleted or operationally limited due to
urban encroachment. The latest NZ Government Policy Statement on Land Trans-
port (Ministry of Transport 2020) outlines record levels of investment ($48 Bil-
lion) planned over the next decade on transport-related infrastructure development
throughout the country, requiring aggregates of various specifications. This places
a heavy emphasis on supplying aggregate resources for roadway infrastructure and
mainly in the Auckland region. According to Welvaert (2018), aggregates are mostly
supplied from nearby sources because of the geographic dispersion of quarry loca-
tions (this can be seen in Freeman (2020) and also Fig.3 in this paper). Aggregates
are almost entirely transported by road. Aggregate transport accounted for only 11%
of freight transport in 2012/2013, and there is rarely any aggregate freight trans-
port between regions, with the exception of Auckland (Ministry of Transport 2017),
where aggregates are mainly supplied from other regions in the North Island, mak-
ing the product expensive and difficult to access. Auckland is expected to continue
dominating the demand for aggregates in the future, based on residential growth
driving demand for houses, roads and infrastructure to support the expanding econ-
omy. In 2018, 40% of the total construction value and 39% of new dwelling consents
in New Zealand are attributed to Auckland (MBIE 2019).
Production of aggregates is also uneven, with premium grade aggregates
accounting for approximately 10% of all output, and the highest grades sourced
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from a minority of quarries (Lane 2017). In turn, survey and case study findings
suggest inadequate or unreliable supplies of recycled aggregates (either due to dis-
tance, available volumes or quality) as impediments to specifying recycled aggre-
gates into contemporary projects (O’Donnell et al. 2018). Respondents reported
that demand far outstrips supply but reported that the cost of upscaling the produc-
tion of aggregates may reduce the viability in an economy of New Zealand’s size
and geography. Despite the growing cost of virgin aggregates as a result of dwin-
dling supply, consumers consistently ‘over-specify’ virgin aggregates when there
are viable alternatives from technical, policy and economic standpoints (described
by stakeholders as ‘unnecessary demand’ by Lane (2017)) (O’Donnell etal. 2018;
Mora etal 2019).
The use of recycled materials for aggregate use is increasingly encouraged
to minimize the reliance on virgin products. In New Zealand, the Cement and
Concrete Association (CCANZ), in partnership with BRANZ and supported by
the Aggregate and Quarry Association of New Zealand, published a guideline
report for the use of recycled materials as aggregates in New Zealand (CCANZ
2013).
The challenge with the use of recycled products is the need for quality sorting,
production processing, quality assurance and auditing which mandates the use of
the latest technology and management systems to supply the final quality product.
New Zealand road pavements are largely designed and constructed as flexible pave-
ments, due to the country’s relatively low traffic volumes in comparison to more
dense country populations and consist mostly of multiple layers of unbound granular
construction. They typically consist of three layers above the subgrade. The quality
of the pavement layers generally decreases with increasing depth and reduced stress
and strain from induced and repetitive vehicle traffic loading.
Evidence from the literature suggests that the historical failure to account for
the environmental and social costs and benefits retains the cost–benefit balance
in favour of virgin materials (Lane 2017; Ministry of Transport 2014; Slaughter
2005; Wu etal. 2015). Shifting the balance towards recycled aggregates would
require, for example, a more wholistic costing approach. Transport costs, for
example, were identified as critical factors which could go unmeasured on a
per vehicle per load basis (Baas 2012). Local and international literature thus
cited the need for a life-cycle perspective that factors in key barriers: (i) per-
ceived risk from supply chain issues as well as performance costs and working
outside of standard practices, and that (ii) using alternative materials requires
additional effort managing supplies and additional signoff or work to demon-
strate benefits.
3 Towards aNational Picture ofAggregates forLand Transport
Infrastructure inNew Zealand
There is currently very little literature or knowledge on the demand for aggregates
for land transport infrastructure per section length of infrastructure type in New Zea-
land. Some countries (e.g. Canada) have undertaken studies to determine the ranges
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of commodities (raw materials) per building type and some ranges for infrastruc-
ture for utilities (Savoy 1996). The types of building and transport infrastructure are
however very different in New Zealand to North American practices and cannot be
directly related.
This section reviews a number of existing data sources in New Zealand to deter-
mine generic aggregate quantities in relation to various types of transport infrastruc-
ture and maintenance treatments. Investigated data sources include:
• Road Asset Assessment and Maintenance Management (RAMM) database
• Proprietary Road Controlling Authority maintenance databases, e.g. Auckland
Transport
• Infrastructure Commission Forward Works Programme (recently developed and
expanded from the Christchurch Rebuild forward works programme)
• New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals (NZP&M) data held at Ministry of Busi-
ness, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)
• Specific project As Built construction drawings and Quantity Estimates from
schedules of Quantities
• Geo-spatial modelling of mineral resources
There are a number of existing sources of data from geo-spatial data to databases
that relate to the supply and demand for aggregates for infrastructure projects held
within various central, regional or local government agencies. None of the data
sources are currently in a form that can be easily analysed to gain cross-sector infer-
ences from the data in regard to the national supply and demand for aggregates in
relation to future infrastructure demand. Table1 identifies the various sources of
data, their type and their known advantages/disadvantages in respect to being able
to use the dataset to improve resource efficiency, industry sector understanding or
enable improved sustainable practices.
3.1 A Geological Map ofAggregates andNatural Endowments
In New Zealand, while most aggregates for road pavements are sourced from
greywacke and volcanic rocks from crushed rock quarries, a range of different rock
types can be recognised within these two large groupings. Each rock type produces
aggregate with a matrix of properties which are determined by the nature of its
mineral and fabric within the rock. As shown in Fig.1, greywacke aggregates are
the predominant source rock that by location forms approximately 75% of aggre-
gates used for land transport infrastructure. However, greywackes have very vari-
able properties, and there are five different types that can be recognised each with
a distinctive matrix of engineering properties (Black 2009). Two of the greywacke
types (Waipapa and Torlesse type) have very high crushing resistance values. The
low contents of fines produced can mean that these aggregates sometimes have dif-
ficulties with achieving target particle size distributions within the M/4 prescribed
‘premium’ quality envelope without further production processing and can in some
instances be categorised as ‘marginal’.
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Table 1 Summary of existing data sources
Data sources Data type Advantages Disadvantages/issues
NZP&M National Data (MBIE) Annual NZP&M Survey Longitudinal data nationwide. This is
also a requirement of quarry consent
with the Crown, so most large quarry
owners do provide data
This data is currently voluntary for non-
Crown consented quarry owners. The
participation rates have decreased since
2018. The data are detailed enough
to consider quality of product and do
not include recycled materials, and
the accuracy of quantity estimates is
unknown
Quarry Consents (Regional Councils)
RMA
Land Use Planning Consents This data has a regional focus. It consid-
ers demand and effects to environment
and local communities including iwi/
hapu (tribes). It has significant varia-
tion by operator region and business/
employment opportunities
The data has no real link to operation of
quarry once consent is approved. It pro-
vides little monitoring of wider effects
other than if complaints are made and
no separation by quality of product or
volume of extraction. Resource reserves
by region are not monitored in relation
to demand
Road Controlling Authorities (RCAs) RAMM – Road Asset Maintenance and
Management System Database
All NZ RCA’s use RAMM since 1990s.
The data have good inventory for exist-
ing assets, including historic road asset
The data do not provide the quantities of
aggregates and their sources
Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) Road asset data All projects that receive Waka Kotahi
funding are required to provide asset
data
General sector access to data is not cur-
rently available as purpose of data is
currently for auditing purposes
Aggregate Performance Method (Stantec
on behalf of Waka Kotahi)
Aggregate Surface Performance Data-
base by quarry source for road safety
performance
The data relate aggregate source proper-
ties for resistance to polishing by
quarry in NZ to high-speed data skid
resistance performance
This database is only related to the
performance of surfacing aggregate to
one performance variable (resistance to
microtextural polishing) but provides a
good example of what can be achieved.
It does not consider other aggregate
qualities
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Table 1 (continued)
Data sources Data type Advantages Disadvantages/issues
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sci-
ences (GNS)
Geographic Information System map-
ping of aggregate opportunities
GNS has recently digitised previous
maps with various layers (refer Hill
2018, e.g. geology, quarry sites) that
have allowed the development of an
aggregates’ opportunity map
It is unclear whether the opportunity maps
and the various layers are open source
and available for industry
Whilst mapping of aggregate opportuni-
ties (that shows not only the endow-
ment of mineralogical resources) but
overlaying areas of environmental and
cultural sensitivities is important, this is
still only part of the required aggregate
framework. Regional demand, quantity
and quality aspects must also be a
consideration
Infrastructure Commission (2020) Forward Works Programme — built off
the success of the Christchurch for-
ward works programme post the 2011
Christchurch earthquakes
This is a GIS-based programme where
information can be relatively easily
updated. It could be expanded to
include raw materials
New project information must be
uploaded by Infrastructure Commis-
sion staff. It is currently challenging
to ensure quality of data. The dataset
is currently is a list of projects (the
project pipeline) across all sectors, their
assessed construction cost and planned
timeframe to construction market
release, without any information on raw
materials or aggregate volume estimates
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In some areas of New Zealand (e.g. western central north island and eastern plains
of the south island), alluvial gravels are derived from the Torlesse-type greywackes
and form the axial ranges of both the North and South Islands. Greywackes have var-
iations in properties. Large areas of insitu greywacke are being eroded to shed mate-
rial into the alluvial river systems. The individual pebbles/boulders show a range
of grain sizes and composition although all appear to be Torlesse-type. Very small
amounts of chocolate or reddish coloured chert and igneous pebbles (both found in
Torlesse–terrane greywacke sequences) can appear in some gravels. Natural sorting
Fig. 1 Aggregate geological source characteristics in New Zealand (source Black 2009)
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and abrasion during river transport have largely eliminated all the weaker rocks and
generally provide a very clean resource which produces aggregate with properties in
the high end of Torlesse-type greywackes. The Canterbury plains around Christch-
urch in the South Island for example largely have aggregates sourced from alluvial
sources for this reason.
Volcanic rocks that form approximately 25% of aggregates used in road construc-
tion are a major resource for production of aggregates in the North Island. The qual-
ity and nature of the aggregate resource is a function of the rock type (its chemistry
and mineral content), and the environment in which it was erupted. Three different
types of basaltic aggregate sources are recognised: young intraplate basalts extend-
ing from Bay of Islands to South Auckland and west Waikato, ophiolite basalts
(Northland and East Cape) and arc-related basalts (includes basaltic andesites) in
Northland region, Coromandel Peninsula and the Rotorua-Taupo Volcanic zone.
Other volcanic rocks used in road aggregates are andesites that are commonly quar-
ried in Northland and the Taupo region and are the major aggregate resource for the
Coromandel and Bay of Plenty regions. Some dacites and rhyolites in the Taupo
region are also used that have erupted as part of the arc-related volcanism along the
eastern side of Northland region and in the Taupo area.
3.2 Analysis ofAggregate Extraction andConsents
Quarrying consents from Regional Councils and Territorial Authorities in New Zea-
land between the period of 2016 to 2018 are analysed. A total of 509 resource con-
sent information was received from 34 Territorial Authorities relating to aggregate
extraction or associated activities. Analysis of the consents revealed a lack of con-
sistency in the information provided. The review of quarrying consents data unfortu-
nately demonstrated that very little useful data can be currently obtained from both
quarry consent applications and the responses from consenting authorities. In gen-
eral, there was a very large variation in the quality of the quarry consent applica-
tions with a significant proportion not even identifying the source of aggregates that
they were seeking consent to extract. This meant that aggregate quantities, quality,
demand (in regards to truck movements) and the effects to local communities, envi-
ronment, other resources (e.g. water) and iwi/hapu were mostly not appropriately
evaluated by the consenting authority. There were however a few good examples
that could be used to help create a template for applicants to use in the future.
3.3 Analysis ofInfrastructure Planning andDesign Construction Data
The only data source where actual quantities in relation to specific aggregate prod-
uct demand could be related to various infrastructure types are from Project Infra-
structure files, As Built drawings, typical cross sections and tendering schedule
of quantities held within Road Controlling Authorities of New Zealand (RCA) or
their consultant offices. To gain this information and relate it to variables like the
subgrade strength and the design traffic volumes is a manual process, very time-
and resource-intensive process and in many cases, it is challenging to gain access
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to project files. For this research, it was determined to be of better value to deter-
mine typical ranges of demand for aggregate quantities (basecourse and subbase)
per kilometre given various design scenarios (e.g. low or high underlying subgrade
strength and low, medium or high traffic volume loadings), from various road cross-
sectional standards from recent and planned infrastructure projects. The estimates in
demand do not include typical bulk earthwork volumes to bring the road formation
up to or down to the subgrade formation level where the pavement layers will be
placed above. The quantities also do not account for aggregate demand for concrete
(e.g. bridges, kerb and channel, footpaths, cycleways, stormwater and other utilities,
retaining walls or specific aggregate drainage/bedding materials) and are therefore a
subset of total infrastructure aggregate demand. Table2 summarises unbound pave-
ment material layer aggregate demand data calculated from various sources for new
road constructions.
The demand for aggregates for transport infrastructure can vary significantly as a
function of traffic volumes and underlying foundation strength. Premium basecourse
quantities per kilometre vary from a minimum of 3250 tonnes for a local urban road
to up to 13,000 tonnes per km for an urban principal arterial and 11,000 tonnes per
km for a 4-lane rural divided expressway. Additionally, subbase aggregate quantities
for the same road type can range from 3750 to 36,100 tonnes per km for urban roads
and up to 39,100 tonnes per km for a rural 4-lane divided expressway.
Alternative pavement design strategies can be deployed to reduce the depth of
pavement layers and quantities of aggregates on low-strength foundations by sub-
grade or aggregate improvement techniques (e.g. in situ lime or cement stabilisa-
tion). These methods can both reduce aggregate dependency and optimise pavement
costs per square meter or lineal pavement length but in many existing cases, this
resource use optimisation is not adequately considered through the investigation
and design stage of infrastructure projects. More sustainable resource usage can be
encouraged by incorporating design and selection strategies that look to minimise
the carbon footprint of transport infrastructure construction and maintenance prac-
tices. However, currently, there is very little existing data available to enable this
kind of design strategy analysis to be undertaken.
3.4 Analysis ofAggregate Transporting Distance
In this research, telematics data was used from EROAD to analyse truck journeys.
EROAD is one of New Zealand’s leading providers of fully integrated technology,
tolling and services. The term ‘telematics data’ refers to a combination of data in
‘telecommunications’ and ‘informatics’. EROAD provides the telecommunications
system to send, receive and store the location and timestamps of a large propor-
tion of commercial truck fleets in New Zealand. Figure2 illustrates the life cycle
of aggregates from suppliers of Virgin and Recycled materials to construction sites
and then to recycle yards. We focus on the hauling step in this circular economy, in
particular the transportation of aggregates from quarries to construction and mainte-
nance sites.
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Table 2 Aggregate demand in road pavement layers by various road types
Low range is for medium subgrade strength (California Bearing Ratio CBR = 5) and high subgrade strength (CBR = 10). High range is for low subgrade strength
(CBR = 3). Low range is for high subgrade strength (CBR = 10)
Road type descriptor/quantities Urban local road Urban collector road Urban principal arterial Rural 2 lane
2 way state
highway
Rural 4 lane divided
state highway express-
way
No. of traffic lanes and lane width (m) 2 × 3m 2 × 3.5m 8 × 3m 2 × 3.5m 4 × 3.5m
Shoulder width (m) 2.2m 2.2m 1.8m 2m 2.5m
Central median width (m) NA NA 2.5m NA 9m
Total sealed surface width 10.4m 15m 27.6m 11m 19m
Estimated traffic (Equivalent Standard Axles — ESA) low
to high
3.6 × 105 ESAs 1.1 × 106 ESAs 2 × 107 ESAs 1 × 106 ESAs 2 × 107 ESAs
Agg Basecourse quantities (low to high range) tonnes per
km
32451 to 374525400 13,005 38851 to 4180211,000
Agg Subbase quantities (low to high range) tonnes per km 37453 to 8240261203 to 14,400212,2853 to 36,120268653 to 15,120211,4903 to 39,1402
Sealed surface area (m2) 10,400 15,000 27,600 11,000 19,000
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The ultimate aim of this analysis is to look at the current distances of aggregate
transport journeys and to obtain insights on how they could potentially be reduced
to a shorter, ideal distance to minimise the costs and negative impacts of transport-
ing aggregates. The study initially found and visualised the locations of suppliers,
i.e. aggregate quarries, on a geographical map using Land Information New Zea-
land (LINZ) GIS data. Since there are over 1000 quarries in the LINZ dataset, focus
was made on a smaller selected list of 34 quarries across New Zealand to demon-
strate the benefits of data analysis. Figure3 illustrates the locations of these quarries
spread throughout New Zealand.
The EROAD data have been collected with the following considerations:
• Data is from 1 Jan 2019 to 31 Dec 2019
• Only heavy vehicles were included
• Quarries and worksite have an approximately 300-m buffer to include locations
that are not perfectly inside the provided geometry
• Trips are derived from either ignition or vehicle moving to either ignition off or
vehicle stopped. This is to capture trips that do not ignition off at the worksite
• Trips are combined into chains by grouping trips that have less than 5 min
between the end of one and the start of another. Smaller trip chaining thresholds
result in longer trips
• Trip chains in this Origin–Destination matrix must start or stop in one of the
supplied quarry or worksite
• We have excluded trip chains that start and stop in the same place
We take one significantly large worksite as an example to determine how truck
movements carrying aggregates are hauled. The chosen project is the Huntly
Expressway site (see Fig.3), which is a 15.2-km bypass of the Waikato Express
motorway in the North Island. The Huntly Expressway is one of the recent impor-
tant road infrastructure projects in New Zealand. The site is surrounded by a
large number quarries. The Huntly Expressway was under construction during
2019 and the time EROAD data were analysed and prior to the site being open to
Fig. 2 The aggregate life cycle
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general traffic. An assumption was made that all trucks that visited this worksite
from a quarry would be carrying some aggregates.
Figure4 visualises the truck movements between the quarries and especially
to the Huntly Expressway worksite using a Chord diagram. A Chord diagram
represents flows or connections between nodes. In this case, the nodes are either
aggregate quarries or the Huntly Expressway (highlighted purple segment). The
size of the fragment represents the popularity of the node in the data. The arcs
between each node are proportional to the number of the journey between that
pair of quarries.
Figure4 shows several large quarries with many truck movements, such as the
TeKowhai, Horotiu, Waikanae and Stevenson quarries. This is expected as these
quarries are among the largest in NZ. The figure also shows a Huntly Expressway
worksite, which also attracts a significant number of truck trips. Figure4 dem-
onstrates these truck journeys between the Huntly Expressway worksite and the
studied quarries in more details. It can be seen that the majority of the journeys to
and from the Huntly Expressway are from quarries that are close to Huntly, such
as the TeKowhai, Horotiu and Tahuna quarries. However, there are 11 different
quarries that had trucks coming from them to the Huntly Expressway worksite
(or the other way around). Many of these 11 quarries have a long distance to the
worksite, which suggests a potential inefficiency in the hauling distance of aggre-
gate. We further explore this fact in Fig.5a and b. The figures show that for both
travel time and travel distance, the distributions are highly skewed to the left,
Fig. 3 Map of interested quar-
ries across New Zealand
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Fig. 4 Number of truck journeys between the studied quarries and the Huntly Expressway
Fig. 5 The distribution of a travel distance and b travel time from studied quarries to the Huntly Express
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showing that the majority of journeys are short. Occasionally, aggregates may be
transported from over 300km away taking over 7h to haul in.
Figure6 illustrates the distribution of journey start time at different times of
the day. The figure shows that the majority of truck journeys start within the
peak periods from 5:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M., when there are higher traffic volumes.
These typical construction work day time period constraints may also be due to
quarry or construction site working conditions required, for example to reduce
noise in communities or on specific urban roads. Some of these issues and con-
straints may be addressed in the near to medium future with the availability of
more electric (to reduce noise) and autonomous fleets (for driver-free transport
of aggregates). More advanced optimisation of truck routes carrying aggregates
and truck start time may also find time windows and routes that satisfy certain
requirements of noise and travel time. These routes may potentially be longer, but
travelling during off-peak periods may mean shorter travel time and better overall
efficiency. These specific optimisations are out of scope for this project, but can
be explored in future research.
The current dataset was not originally designed for the analysis of aggregates
and has the following limitations that are hindering our understanding of the
aggregate life cycle:
• The type of aggregates being transported is missing (e.g. Virgin vs Recycled
aggregates)
• Although the distance, location and trip distribution (spatially and temporally)
are available, it cannot be confirmed that the trucks were transporting aggre-
gates. This can only be an assumption, e.g. trucks coming to the Huntly Express-
way worksite would likely be carrying aggregates
• The trip-chaining procedures also used some assumptions such as the state of the
trucks’ ignition and a 300-m buffer zone around the quarries or worksites. This is
because the information on the trip purpose of the trucks is missing
• There is no information on the reuse/recycle step in the dataset
Fig. 6 Distribution of truck start
time within the time of day
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A potential future telematics system that could collect dynamic data of materials
logistics from place of origin to destination could become a very useful raw resource
use system in the future. The ideal dataset should have detailed data of individual
journeys of truck fleet carrying aggregates from quarries to construction sites and
recycled material yards. The included variables can be classified into trip-related
and truck-related variables:
• Trip-related variables are specific information about the truck journey carrying
aggregates, such as travel time, mean speed, distance, travel delay and the type of
roads that the truck travelled on
• Truck-related variables include information on the truck used for the above
journey, such as the type of aggregates being transported, the weight/volume of
aggregates, the total capacity and the type of the truck
4 Discussions onaNational Picture ofAggregates
Aggregates are an important non-renewable resource for land transport and building
infrastructure. While New Zealand has an abundance of rock suitable for aggregate,
local supply does not always match local demand for the construction, maintenance
and recycling of road infrastructure. Due to a deficit in infrastructure development
for a number of decades, strong population growth in many areas and much of New
Zealand’s public infrastructure is coming to the end of its useful and/or economic
life — there is an increasing demand for aggregates in many regions of New Zea-
land. Some regions of New Zealand have difficulties sourcing appropriate materi-
als locally for infrastructure purposes, and there are increasing sensitivities to the
extraction of aggregates from communities and iwi/hapu who have experienced and
seen the effects of poor industry extraction and environmental practices and the lack
of monitoring or little consent conditions regulated. Very little appropriate data is
currently available either nationally or within regions to sustainably plan, manage
and use and reuse/recycle aggregates for various public or private infrastructure and
therefore be able to forecast future aggregate demand (Wilson etal. 2022).
The ‘ownership’ of aggregates is complex. It is determined by both land own-
ership and mineral rights, held by a combination of public, private and iwi par-
ties, in temporary and permanent arrangements. Limited access to information on
ownership makes it difficult to identify existing and future supply options, includ-
ing how difficult it might be to establish new supply in key locations. It also means
that the governance of aggregate resource is unclear. We recommend expanding
the Infrastructure Commission Forward Works Programme to allow future planned
infrastructure to be broken down to demand by region and including primary raw
materials — this can be linked to the 30-year Infrastructure Plan and the demand
calculated by the Waka Kotahi resource quantity database for each region.
Alternative materials are less well documented in industry literature, compared
with virgin materials. Previous research has established that alternative materials are
perceived as risky and require more efforts than virgin materials, in part because
information about their production and use is limited. The implication of this
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invisibility is that opportunities to plan for and use recycled materials are missed.
Finding pathways where better information can be used to share the risk of using
alternative materials and making their use a higher priority should be explored.
Regions/areas should be identified and targeted where there are opportunities for
increased use of recycled materials, (e.g. where there is critical mass in urban devel-
opment — Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch) and correspondingly where
there are significant natural aggregate supply constraints (e.g. Northland, Hawkes
Bay, Horizons and Wellington regions).
Practices vary considerably across New Zealand, in terms of aggregate supply
and demand. It is not currently clear whose responsibility it is to improve prac-
tices. A whole of sector approach is required to improve practices by adopting a
value approach. Waka Kotahi is in a good position to provide leadership through the
development and active dissemination of a complete ‘use of aggregates’ packages
(O’Donnell etal. 2018). An example of these packages can be a sustainability rat-
ing scheme that promotes the use of recycled and the reuse of materials (e.g. ISCA)
to prioritise low carbon emission options. An upskilling education programme is
required to ensure decision makers are not only aware of the complex issues but to
become aware of their own organisational biases that affect values and norms and
that can reinforce poor resource use practices and outcomes. Updated guidelines
and specifications on the use of all aggregates are part of reducing risk and increas-
ing comfort levels in the sector (Ivory and Bagshaw 2020). Guidelines can provide
varying levels of detail, providing ‘rules of thumb’ for sector-wide guidance down
to more detailed guides and specifications for specialists. Relevant to the supply
and demand issues discussed in this report, guidance can include how to determine
whether materials are ‘fit for purpose’ and reducing the risk for decision-makers by
providing performance measures. Guidance can also include safe stockpiling of dif-
ferent materials, including recycled materials, which could increase confidence in
supply lines. For guidelines to be effective in changing practice in the selection and
use of materials, they need to be consistent, accessible and useable across the whole
aggregates sector.
There is a need to develop an aggregate data integration framework to where pos-
sible standardise/collate and improve aggregate data information at both the national
and regional levels for the extraction and processing of aggregates (supply) in regard
to both quantities and quality to allow wider use. This framework will enable us to
investigate how aggregates and potentially other key raw resource materials could
be tagged, identified and electronically tracked from place of origin to destination.
Figure7 illustrates the key elements of this ideal data framework. This would in turn
allow remote data analytics and infrastructure condition monitoring to be developed
throughout the various stages of the infrastructure life cycle of aggregate materi-
als from source to place of use and to enable the more sustainable use of aggre-
gate potential minerals and associated resources. The framework will establish a
national infrastructure resource quantity and pricing database for each region and
integrate into a national database so as to improve an understanding of aggregate
demand by infrastructure typology and maintenance activity. This framework could
extend to all RCAs for projects over a certain threshold and that receive National
Land Transport Funding and be part of the currently required achievement data. The
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framework should include as a separate module the projected land transport future
demand for aggregates by region to enable forward planning. This will require inte-
gration of data on aggregates from various systems, regions and aggregate sectors
that differentiate by aggregate product quality to more sustainably manage the value
and effects of aggregate resources. National usage of resources by product qual-
ity and purpose (that includes recycled materials and associated resources — e.g.
Water and by product quality) should become mandatory to report to NZP&M and/
or regional/local authorities on a quarterly basis (currently this is voluntary for non-
Crown owned lands) for all suppliers of aggregate as part of the consenting require-
ments. Quarterly information will allow much better forecasting of demand within
regions and nationally. It will be important to communicate the value proposition of
the reporting to all stakeholders to provide context.
5 Conclusion
The aggregate market plays a pivotal role in the economic development and well-
being of New Zealand by matching the supply of construction materials with the
demand for both maintaining existing infrastructure and facilitating growth of the
built environment. The main demand for aggregate is in the highway construction
and rehabilitation sectors. New Zealand went through a period of more than 3 dec-
ades of underinvestment in transport in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000 decade. In
the last two decades, funding investment has significantly increased, and transport
taxes are now fully hypothecated to transport with additional Crown investment into
Fig. 7 Aggregate data needs through the life cycle of land transport infrastructure
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capacity and safety infrastructure improvements. While transport is not the sole user
of aggregate material, as aggregate is also a key raw material for building and hous-
ing, the transport sector in New Zealand accounts for up to 50% of demand. Previ-
ous studies have highlighted the need to better manage this important non-renewable
mineral resource, ensuring the use of aggregates and both premium and alternative
resources (that include recycled materials) are better planned and managed to ensure
use is not only efficient and effective but transitions towards more sustainable prac-
tices and takes a long-term view. This paper sets out to fill a knowledge gap as there
is currently no national picture of, or strategy in place for considering aggregate
extraction, the ongoing and future demand and long-term supply of aggregate mate-
rials to enable sustainable aggregate sourcing and land use/environmental effects.
Key issues include:
• A lack of understanding, data and knowledge of the factors influencing supply
and demand that account for quality needs of product and alternative resource
options
• Expediency of decision-making using virgin ‘tried and true’ methods alongside
risk averseness of organisations and a reluctance to share risk
• Perceptions that recycled materials are inferior products
• Long-term planning and forecasting demand requirements
• Community and cultural sensitivities in regard to quarrying, extraction practices
and land use
New Zealand is abundant in aggregates for road transport infrastructure. How-
ever, at the regional level, scarcity becomes relevant due to unequal spatial distribu-
tion, population density and growth pressures. Recovery of aggregates impacts other
stocks of natural resources, including water ways and ambient air quality. Commu-
nity and cultural sensitivities especially for iwi and hapu contribute to a decline in
the stock of potential aggregate resources in some areas, especially the larger urban
regional areas and regions where unsustainable or poor historical practices have cre-
ated increased sensitivity.
Recent advances in recycling technology provide potential partial substitutes in
large urban areas where scale enables important critical mass, although they too face
significant pressure from communities not wanting recycling facilities in their area
in addition to the lack of experience with various technologies or quality process
controls. However, there are significant barriers to the increased uptake in the use of
alternative materials (both recycled and local non-premium virgin quarried materi-
als) that have to date prevented more sustainable use of aggregate materials. Aggre-
gate recycling can occur to produce a product for most of the pavement layers — it
depends upon the cost in comparison to other available material sources. Generally,
to gain the greatest gain in recycling, the higher value aggregate products need to be
targeted first, but perceptions of low-quality recycled aggregates often lead to them
being reused into lower value pavement layers. This may be true if processing of
recycled materials is not carefully controlled. Recycled aggregate materials include
‘on-site recycling’ where maintenance interventions can reuse existing materials
by including the addition of stabilisers to improve the insitu performance and/or
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extend the life of the asset, in comparison to the use of a transported material of
higher quality.
This research highlights the multi-sector aspects and complexity in the issues
surrounding the more sustainable planning, extraction and use of aggregates as
non-renewable mineral resources. The effect of aggregate extraction on associated
resources is not well understood, and there are many examples where historical uses
have not been adequately monitored or regulated resulting in poor environmental,
community and cultural outcomes. It is also clear that whilst New Zealand nation-
ally has a combined abundance of good quality endowment in aggregates, there are
various regions that have significant constraints in being able to sustainably source
quality (premium) aggregates and increasing aggregate demand. This is especially
so when there are large infrastructure projects that outstrip previous demand levels
making the sourcing of aggregate for the various users of aggregate within a spe-
cific region (e.g. Road Controlling Authority, Government, Council or even large
private sector project) for new infrastructure investment or asset maintenance needs
compete against each other. Data on the demand quantity for aggregate from infra-
structure construction and maintenance projects throughout the infrastructure life
cycle are difficult to obtain due to the multiple agencies and industries involved and
the lack of integration of asset systems. There are no simple fixes to these issues as
there are significant difficulties in obtaining the appropriate data to manage aggre-
gate resources at the National and Regional level.
Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the Project Steering Group (Christine Moore, Sha-
ron Atkins, Tim Journeaux, Adam Leslie, Wayne Scott, Cathy Bebleman) and the help of various other
staff members of Waka Kotahi (Lonnie Dalziel, Rob Napier), Horizons Region (Ramon Strong and
Michaela Rose), Stantec (Jamie Povall and Ken Clapworthy), Auckland Transport (Peter Scott and Mur-
ray Burt), EROAD (Gareth Robins), Aggregates Quarrying Association (AQA – Mike Chilton) to this
project. Appreciation is also given to the Internal Peer Reviewers (Stacy Goldsworthy CCNZ and Ste-
phen Selwood) for their helpful review and suggestions on the paper.
Author Contribution DW was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. MK analysed and inter-
preted the telematics data. MSS wrote the sections related to transport economics in this paper. AS per-
formed the data analytics on transport economics. VI oversaw and analysed the data from the question-
naire survey. BS oversaw the project and contributed to the development of methodology. All the authors
read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions This project
receives funding from Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency, project number TAR-19.
Data Availability The data that support the findings of this study are available from WSP, but restrictions
apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not
publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permis-
sion of WSP.
Declarations
Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate The questionnaire survey conducted has received ethical clear-
ance from the ethics committee of WSP group, New Zealand. All respondents gave consent to participate
in the survey.
Consent for Publication Not applicable.
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Competing Interests The authors declare no competing interests.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,
which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Com-
mons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article
are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the
material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is
not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission
directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen
ses/ by/4. 0/.
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