Click on the listed action to the right, or on the category you’re interested in understanding below. You can also use the search bar to find answers.
If you have a question that hasn’t been answered below, feel free to get in touch with the NFWV team at info@forwardworks.co.nz
*Check if your region is covered; if not, we can help assist you in finding an anchor subscriber.
GIS systems are powerful for in-house use, but lack the full functionality needed for cross-organisation forward works planning. The FWV software is custom-built for collaboration, with a simple licencing structure and an easy-to-use interface. It standardises data from hundreds of organisations into a single layer, allowing users to query all data at once, save searches, and get alerts on new projects.
Functionality aside, building an in-house GIS for infrastructure would be complex and time-consuming – involving data integration from external sources, API management, complex licensing, coordinating data updates, and securing data sharing agreements. We’ve done the hard mahi and it’s all included in a very reasonable monthly subscription fee.
Find out more about what sets the FWV apart from a GIS system in our article here.
In most cases you don’t have to – but why not? By sharing your project intentions to the map, you’re reducing the risk of clashes. Even if you’re not sharing your data, you can still have a nosey at what’s happening in your area to see whether your project could be better sequenced.
It’s up to your local Road Controlling Authority (RCA) to decide if using the NFWV is voluntary, advised or expected – so check in with them if you’re not sure.
In regions where use is not mandatory, we can tell you that stakeholders are strongly encouraging people in the infrastructure sector to participate and load their projects and assets to create a ‘virtuous network effect’. This means the more data that’s added, the more valuable the system becomes for everyone. Over time this creates a critical mass of users and data – at which point you’ll wonder how you ever managed without the NFWV.
If you want to know which regions are using the NFWV, or if your local RCA is planning to get on board, email us at info@forwardworks.co.nz and we’ll let you know.
The NFWV is open to all users who have a role or stakeholder interest in the delivery of projects – infrastructure, commercial, housing and events. We don’t provide access to the general public, advocacy groups (unless approved by a major stakeholder within a region) or media.
There’s a Terms of Use section on the website which provides restrictions on what users can do with data from the NFWV (which is, to use it for the benefit of their project, but not to re-publish).
We want the NFWV to be used as widely as possible by those with a genuine interest in collaborative planning and minimising community disruption.
The FWV works on an anchor subscriber basis – so if there’s an anchor subscriber in your region already, then it’s free for you to use and to provide data. An anchor subscriber is usually a council or an alliance. To find out if there’s an anchor subscriber in your area, or for more information about our pricing structure, click here.
Your forward works programme can be shared to the NFWV either manually or through an automated process using APIs that draw from your chosen data source. The minimum data required includes:
project location (ideally provided in a geospatial format but you can draw your project boundary within the FWV if you don’t have shapefiles)
Once uploaded, all organisations using the FWV can see the data. If you have confidential projects, it can be marked so only your organisation can see them.
Projects can only be edited by those with permission (Project Planner access), and they can only edit their own organisation’s projects.
You can search for projects or use the map to see project locations. Clicking on a project will alert you to any clashes or opportunities with nearby projects and provides contact details so you can collaborate.
To top it off, all data can be extracted for analysis, such as creating a heatmap of activity over time.
Not yet. The NFWV is currently optimised for desktop usage, however, if there’s enough demand for a mobile app version, we’ll look into it as a development opportunity. If you’d benefit from this, drop us an email to let us know.
The NWFV is a tool to enable collaboration and coordination and enables you to have visibility of infrastructure projects in areas you’re interested in not a programme planner. While you can’t plan a programme within the viewer itself, you can use the information it provides to help schedule your works programme and find efficiencies.
We love feedback! It helps us create a tool that services the industry and allows us to keep on improving. Feel free to get in touch by emailing info@forwardworks.co.nz and we’ll get right back to you.
Happens to the best of us! Click here to reset your password.
Click here to sign up for your free account. You can sign up for Read Only access (select Business User) or Edit access (select Project Planner). This access will allow you to upload and edit data for your own organisation only.
Drop an email to info@forwardworks.co.nz and we’ll get you started. The onboarding journey is really easy and we’ll help you every step of the way.
Easy peasy.
You can upload your projects using the viewer’s interface or have our technical service desk carry out a bulk upload or explore using an API to ingest your data directly from your project management system (for free). We can talk you through all options when you onboard. Don’t worry about the format or quality of your project data – we’re yet to find a dataset we can’t load.
On top of this, the NFWV supports adding contextual GIS layers, like local bus routes or other useful geospatial information. If you’d like to include something, just let us know.
Sure thing – send it to support@forwardworks.co.nz. We’ll take a look and let you know if there’s any missing information needed before loading. We’ll probably ask a few questions, like how often you’d like to send updates (we’re relaxed about frequency – our current arrangements range from daily to every few months).
Yes, you can switch infrustructure and contextual layers on and off, change the base map, view just your organisation’s projects, or search within specific timeframes.
Good news! Not much is needed from your end. For large or multiple programmes, once we identify your single source of truth data, we can automate the extraction from your system into the NFWV, so you don’t need to maintain two systems.
Alternatively, you can email your programme to our technical team for upload – or even manually upload it into the NFWV yourself.
We’ll find the option that suits you best during the onboarding process. Once the system is set up, you’ll save plenty of time in the long run as it alerts you to clashes and helps you utilise existing resources.
Like any good relationship, the NFWV requires commitment – but it’s worth the effort. We work with you to develop simple ways to load your data and familiarise your organisation with the system. With lots of resources available and a simple user-friendly interface, logging in immediately presents you with a map of your region with projects displayed.
The most time-consuming part is onboarding, but we make it as pain free as possible. Organisations that identify a champion to work with us, and set us up with the right people, such as schedulers and project managers, have the easiest time. Knowing where all of your project data is kept and having it geospatially mapped helps too. After a couple of meetings, we’re normally ready to load your data and get things rolling.
Understanding that all good relationships take time, why not request access (did we mention that’s free?) and explore at your own pace? Once you’re ready to take the next step – just get in touch.
Yes, you can! There’s a ‘Dates’ button on the map that allows you to view projects within a chosen time range.
Yes! You can set up email notifications for your watchlists, including bookmarked projects, shared projects and saved searches. Watch our video on How to set up watchlists and notifications.
There are other tools better suited to journey planning. NFWV can help you understand what’s happening on the transport network, which is great for network managers working across different regions of NZ – but for planning a journey from A to B, we recommend NZTA’s Journey Planner tool.
As we develop the NFWV we hope to make data available to other systems so that managing journeys and transport networks is more intelligent and efficient.
Yes. We encourage all councils to load their events into the NFWV – it’s best practice and avoids any unfortunate clashes with road works. There’s a special category for events under the ‘Layers’ sidebar in the viewer, so events can be viewed separately on the map.
Yes. The FWV has a function that allows organisations to publish ‘internal’ projects, which are only visible to your organisation. These projects might be sensitive, underfunded, or just not quite ready to share with the wider FWV network – but you’d still like to check it against other projects on the map. You can also share internal projects with other key organisations you’re working with.
Currently, there is no way for a user to mark a project as ‘internal’ within the FWV itself. Internal projects can only be loaded from an API or bulk upload, with a new field in your dataset to indicate that the project is internal. Please get in touch if this is something you want to do, as we’ll need to help you to make sure your new ‘internal’ field is working correctly before it goes live to the FWV.
The FWV is, first and foremost, designed to encourage coordination and collaboration. So, while we recognise that some projects need a bit more confidentiality, we recommend sharing most of your projects so that you can continue to plan effectively with others. To find out more about how to make a project internal, watch this How To video or get in touch on info@forwardworks.co.nz.
A general rule of thumb is to publish any projects that could – have impact on the roading network, the community, or on someone else’s project.
Some organisations will go as far as publishing their tree planting programme and water meter installations, while others stick to the bigger stuff. In the end it’s up to you to publish what you think will be beneficial internally and externally, so everyone can check for clashes and potential collaboration opportunities.
We use OpenStreetMap (OSM) – which we rate highly. It’s the Wikipedia of the mapping world, with data contributions form a huge community. Here’s some of the benefits:
Agility: Anyone can add an update at the click of a button, which will be immediately visible, and version controlled. During the Christchurch earthquake rebuild, OSM maps were quickly updated to reflect road closures. OSM doesn’t rely on data releases, KPIs or approvals like larger companies do.
Free and open: OSM is published under an open licence that allows anyone to access, use and share data, which aligns with our values by allowing a variety of contributions.
Easily editable: If you find something incorrect, head to www.openstreetmap.org, sign up, and edit the map yourself, or post a note on the map for the OSM community who’ll update it on your behalf.
Our alternate base layer is aerial images sourced from Land information New Zealand.
We use aerial maps from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).
The short answer is no – currently, data isn’t fed into Google Maps, but the long answer is that the FWV offers the potential to do much more…
At a minimum, we only require a project boundary to create a project in the viewer. Users can add traffic impacts as part of the project creation process., which are captured digitally using an OpenStreetMap schema. All traffic impacts from the viewer are available as a data service – and can be consumed by any external system or software. This means that Google Maps could potentially consume our impacts if they choose.
Yes. This is called ‘contextual’ data in the NFWV, and it is included at the request of the lead organisation in your area – typically a council. We can include any contextual data that’s available and requested. Other types of route data include heavy good vehicle routes, critical routes, HPMV routes etc.
Yes, it has some – but it’s limited at present.
We’re currently working on a separate tool called the Underground Asset Register that’s custom-built to handle utilities data. It allows people to view what’s beneath their planned projects – including information around asset type, location, owner and contact details. It also provides a means of logging underground findings to provide feedback to utility owners to reduce the risk of asset strikes.
Currently this tool has only been rolled out in Beta mode for Wellington. For more information visit nzuar.org, or contact info@nzuar.org.
Absolutely! We’d love for your GIS team to get to know us better. Your geospatial experts can add value in these key areas:
Data uploads: GIS professionals can efficiently link your scheduling systems, geospatial systems, and project management processes to collate and load your data into the NFWV.
Data extraction: The NFWV allows users to extract and reuse data for all sorts of analysis, including using it in their internal mapping systems. We strongly support organisations who want to pull the data we’ve provided into their internal systems, even if it means they’re not using the FWV – we just really want to get data into the hands of decision-makers so it can be used effectively.
You can check to see when the data was last published to the FWV by clicking on the project summary page and looking at the ‘last updated’ field in the bottom. Currently this field can relate to either when the project was last published to the FWV, or last edited in the system. We will be introducing a new field in 2025 to split out last updated vs last published.
For security purposes, users can only edit projects for the organisation they selected when first creating their account.
For example, if you signed up under “Company NZ” but all your organisation’s projects are linked to “Company.inc”, you won’t be able to edit those projects. To change your organisation or a project’s organisation, contact support@forwardworks.co.nz and we’ll swap things over for you.
If you’re a contractor and you want to add or edit projects on behalf of another organisation, you can either:
Sign up for an account with that organisation’s name – and we will seek approval for your account from someone in that organisation
If the project exists in the system already, we can move a project from one organisation to another – however this can break connections if the data is sourced from another system (see the next section below)
To add or edit projects, you need to sign up for ‘project planner’ access. If you’ve signed up for the wrong type of access, that’s okay – just contact Support to change it.
BUT – it’s important to note that organisations supply data in different ways, so sometimes you shouldn’t be editing your projects directly in the Forward Works Viewer. If you’re not sure, just email us.
The project ‘state’ is generated by our system, based on the project start and end dates you provide.
Planned: The start date is in the future (relative to today’s date) and shows up on the map without a coloured outline.
In Progress: The project is happening now, based the project start and end dates, and shows up on the map with a black outline.
Completed Projects: A project that goes beyond its end date will remain on the FWV map for up to 14 days, then it will drop off the main map and become viewable on the ‘completed projects’ layer. It’s important to keep dates updated. If your project has dropped off, you can still find it using the search function and edit the dates to get it back on the main map. To do this, click the search icon in the sidebar menu, and tick the button at the bottom of the search screen to ‘include completed projects’ before running the search.
