In March 2026, Tararua Alliance became the first Road Controlling Authority in New Zealand to achieve ISO 55001 asset management accreditation, earning international recognition for how it plans, maintains, and invests in the Tararua road network.

“For a rural roading contract like ours to hit this mark is huge,” says Alliance Manager Daniel Erard. “It shows our systems, people, and processes meet global best practice – giving ratepayers full confidence every dollar delivers value.”

“The audit was a two-stage process with an ISO auditor from Adelaide working with Tararua Alliance over several months, going through all our asset management systems and process documentation, and in February visiting Tararua to see how things happen on the ground.”

“The auditor was looking for evidence of our contractual and service delivery, our commitment to continual improvement of the asset management system, and how reliable and effective our decision-making processes are. We have been working with ISO asset management principles since the Tararua Alliance began in 2014 and last year challenged ourselves to go for ISO 55001 accreditation.”

For Tararua District Council Group Manager Operations Hamish Featonby, the accreditation provides the highest level of confidence in an infrastructure partner:

“Our road network isn’t a flashy network – we have a large rural network and our funding has to go a long way. This accreditation is about providing surety that our roading team is managing the resources we have, to make prudent and evidence-based decisions for the long-term maintenance and resilience of our roads.”

“ISO 55001 is more than compliance, it’s a strategic tool for ensuring the right asset management practices are in place for delivering better infrastructure outcomes, improving community trust, and ensuring long-term value from public assets. We expect the benefits of this to flow beyond roading to how we manage all our infrastructure.”

Downer General Manager Strategic Asset Management, Adam Bevins, says Downer has been on the ISO journey since 2007, embedding asset management principles into its systems and culture – encapsulated in the Downer Standard.

“This milestone for Tararua proves that asset management excellence is achievable for local councils. The partnership with Tararua District Council demonstrates knowledge sharing and capability building, empowering councils to manage infrastructure with confidence and efficiency.

“Going on the ISO accreditation journey is about knowledge sharing and uplifting the client’s capability – giving confidence to rate payers that the contractor managing their infrastructure assets has the right people and the right processes to make good investment decisions.”

In December 2025, the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission (Te Waihanga) issued guidance to the sector around good practice for central government agencies on integrating asset management with investment planning, including encouraging agencies to align with the suite of ISO 55000 documents in their asset management plans.