On Track with KiwiRail: Coordinating Delivery in a $4B National Rail Upgrade
Established in 1863, KiwiRail is New Zealand’s state-owned rail operator, responsible for managing the country’s rail infrastructure and providing vital freight and passenger services. With a legacy of connecting people and goods for over 150 years, KiwiRail plays a central role in supporting New Zealand’s economy, sustainability goals, and regional development.
- Location
New Zealand
- Project Type
Rail Infrastructure
- Project Size
4.6km of new rail
- Project Cost
$315 million
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How Cross-Discipline Collaboration is Enabling Efficient Delivery of New Zealand Rail Upgrade Projects
New Zealand's rail transport system has connected people and goods around the country for more than 150 years. KiwiRail is in the midst of an exciting transformation on the back of Government investment of more than $4 billion since 2017. This funding is enabling KiwiRail to deliver more than just physical assets, as the capital projects create an opportunity to also transform the way KiwiRail works.
The New Zealand Government outlined its 10-year vision for rail through the NZ Rail Plan. This represents a historic change in the way the rail network is planned and funded. In July 2021, the first Rail Network Investment Programme (RNIP) came into effect which sees Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency fund rail infrastructure from the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF), providing a long-term pipeline of infrastructure investment.
KiwiRail Leverages Revizto for ROI
From 2020 to 2024, KiwiRail's Wiri to Quay Park (W2QP) project is one of a number of capital rail projects powered by Revizto. As KiwiRail revitalizes the busy junctions of Westerfield & Wiri and builds a Third Main to separate slow-moving freight trains from faster commuter trains, Revizto acts as the key coordination tool that pulls the delivery team together into a single collaborative environment.
Derek Jannings, KiwiRail’s Digital Engineering Lead, highlights how Revizto supports the delivery of the Wiri to Quay Park project throughout the lifecycle, helping achieve shared outcomes for all stakeholders.
Revizto is our golden thread on the project. It is used in both design and construction coordination meetings to resolve issues and provide visual context, driving conversations and enabling the W2QP team to solve complex issues before work begins onsite.
Increasing Bottom Line through Efficiency
As rail is a live environment, access to the network for infrastructure construction means planned work must be completed within the agreed timeframes. KiwiRail has provided licensing for its supply chain collaborators to deliver projects. This ensures that everyone has access to Revizto, democratizing both 3D and 2D information.
For KiwiRail, the cost of issues not being coordinated onsite is significantly higher than providing licensing for Revizto.
| Challenges | Solutions |
|---|---|
| Disjointed information across multiple locations. | Designs connected and coordinated in a single place. |
| Design models not accessible across disciplines. | Democratized access to 3D models (not just BIM specialists). |
| Multiple issue tracking spreadsheets with no visual link. | Visual context for stakeholders in one collaborative environment. |
| Rich 3D information limited to BIM practitioners. | Improved coordination, reducing risks and onsite mistakes. |
Design updates are uploaded fortnightly along with monthly as-built models. The as-built models are then fed back into the design environment, enabling the team to coordinate with the latest information at all times and make necessary adjustments as required — reducing risks and mistakes on-site.
Next-Level Coordination with Revizto
Using Revizto as the collaboration environment enables KiwiRail to reduce risks and errors during construction substantially. Because the rail environment is live, work must be coordinated and completed within strict timeframes.
The scale of the W2QP project involves multiple work streams running concurrently. Monthly as-built models are imported into Revizto to coordinate with design models, improving accuracy and minimizing onsite issues.
Using Revizto as our collaboration environment on projects enables us to substantially reduce risks and errors during construction. Because we work in a live rail environment, it is critical that work in the rail corridor is completed within the allocated timeframes, which requires everything to be coordinated. With Revizto, everything went according to plan.
Removing Interoperability Barriers
Revizto hosts a range of inputs such as monthly drone surveys, as-built models, underground services, and specialist rail clearance models. This enables KiwiRail to coordinate complex tolerances at Wiri and Westfield junctions — the busiest in New Zealand.
Powerful Revizto Features for KiwiRail
Revizto enables us to prioritize issues that need to be resolved before scheduled physical construction work. The teams collaborate to address all issues digitally before construction begins, ensuring accuracy under tight time pressures where there is no room for errors.
