Funded projects in national infrastructure pipeline jumps by $16b

Tuesday, 18 November 2025

Prime Minister Chris Luxon and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop outline plans to fast-track key road projects under the Roads of National Significance programme. They say the $1.2b investment will boost jobs, growth and productivity.

The value of infrastructure projects across New Zealand with funding or a confirmed funding source has grown by $56 billion, according to the latest national pipeline report.

The Infrastructure Commission published a September “snapshot” reporton Tuesday, showing the increase in projects with at least a funding source since June 2025, bringing the total of such projects to $181b.

Within this increase, there was a $16.1b increase in projects with full funding, bringing this total to $82b.

There were $28b of projects that had moved from no funding source to having a funding source confirmed -- a major component of this being Roads of National Significance advanced by the New Zealand Transport Agency.

More than 2500 projects were under construction as of September, the cost totalling $61b. The commission said its modelling showed $2.7b would be spent on infrastructure October 1 to the end of 2025, and $11.5b in 2026.

Roading projects are adding to the infrastructure pipeline tallied by the Infrastructure Commission.

In total, the commission counted $275b worth of projects at various stages reported to them by infrastructure builders ‒ which include government departments, councils and private firms ‒ across the country in the September snapshot. The pipeline can grow as more organisations choose to contribute information.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said the Government was “pleased” with the investment being made in infrastructure across the public and private sector.

“We're making good progress. Obviously, a significant lift in the last quarter … it provides a really important signal to the market about what's in construction and what's coming.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is “pleased” with the investment in infrastructure from both the public and private sector.

“We're working really hard to get a better system when it comes to the business casing and funding approvals. There's been quite a degree of frustration that the [Government] Budget will appropriate [a] certain amount of money for a project that doesn't start for years.

“I've been talking publicly about examples in the last couple of months of some projects that are starting soon or have started already, for which the funding was approved, like, literally years ago.”

The September snapshot did not cover Bishop’s subsequent announcement of $1.2b in funding for the early stages of a number of Roads of National Significance projects the Government has promised.

Bishop had previously promised the Government would have $7b of projects under way by Christmas, and on Tuesday he said he would be attending a sod turning “almost every week” before then.

He said this commitment would be reached, aside from one $10 million project which had been pushed into 2026.

“I am slightly frustrated by it.”

Alongside maintaining the infrastructure pipeline, the Infrastructure Commission will also provide a 30-year National Infrastructure Plan to Government by the end of the year.