NZTA estimated the cost for a proponent to participate in the TOC Development Phase, and offered each proponent 50% of this figure. The sums paid to the two proponents totalled approximately 0.5% of the NZTA's cost estimate based on the specimen design.
In making the above payment for the proponents' proposals, the NZTA acquired the intellectual property (IP) and was free to pass the unsuccessful proponent's IP on to the alliance. In practice, the alliance used none of the IP purchased from the losing team.