Moala "Mo" Ofa's team is out rain or shine ensuring traffic flows freely on one of New Zealand's key transport links and, after one year of operation, they can be proud they have helped road users get home safely.   

His Ventia team marked the first anniversary of Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata - Transmission Gully with a celebration of their achievements operating and maintaining the high-profile 27km section of State Highway 1 north of Wellington. 

"What makes my job so rewarding is knowing that I am helping people and keeping the road safe for all users, it's the feeling that I'm helping people and making them safe out there," Mo says. 

Mo is Ventia's Delivery Manager for the motorway and his incident response teams are rostered in two shifts to provide 24/7 coverage, working hand-in-hand with the motorway controllers who continuously monitor the entire motorway. The teams leave their base when a motor controller alerts them of an incident and have 25 minutes to arrive, according to the contract obligations.  

In the last three months they have responded hundreds of times and only gone over time twice.  

_{Pictured: Ventia Delivery Manager, Moala 'Mo' Ofa}
 

Mo says he is proud of his team's efforts, given they have had more than 2,000 callouts over the past year. He also points out that there have been no fatalities or serious injuries on Transmission Gully - something he hopes continues long into the future. 

While there have been some more minor crashes that have still required repairs to road safety barriers, he says most of the callouts his team has responded to have been to help people who have run out of fuel or experienced a vehicle breakdown.  

He recalls one of the more unusual incidents involving a police car that got stuck in a truck arrester bed while monitoring traffic on the motorway's opening day. Mo's team rescued the officer, and she returned later with a chocolate cake to express her thanks.  

Just seeing that thanks and relief from people we've helped, it's a good feeling.
 

_{Pictured: Members of Ventia's Transmission Gully project team}
 

Ventia's Transmission Gully Project Director Jonathan Kibblewhite says the first year is just the start, and his team in Wellington is looking forward to the next phase of the motorway's journey.  

He says road maintenance contracts for state highways are usually set over 10 years, and council contracts for local road maintenance over three years, so Ventia's 25-year agreement for Transmission Gully represents a significant level of trust in the company's capabilities.  

It also represents an opportunity for some long-term thinking and a chance to see the results of innovations and strategies implemented by the dedicated team working on the highway.  

The passion that the team and I have for this contract is pretty awesome. We're here for the long run and we're committed to doing the job well.

_{Pictured: Ventia incident response vehicle travelling on Transmission Gully}
 

Did you know? 

• There were 8.4 million journeys on Transmission Gully in its first year of operation. From those journeys there were only 18 crashes, with none resulting in death or serious injury. 
• There has been approximately 8,760 hours of continuous 24/7 monitoring of the motorway by the Transport Operation Centre. 
• Since Transmission Gully opened Ventia has replaced the equivalent to 1.2 km of damaged road safety barriers. 
• Ventia has collected several lost property items from on the motorway including: a car bonnet (this was returned to the owner), the side of a truck, some gib and timber, lots of load tie-down straps, a Maserati personalised number plate (also returned to owner), and a wheelie bin. A gentle reminder for motorists to ensure your load is tied all down correctly!