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Construction Traffic Management: Vehicle Route Planning

December 25, 2024
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Construction work carried out on or near a public road is classified as high-risk construction work. This kind of work comes with extra hazards and considerations, including the safe movement of vehicles and pedestrians around your worksite.

As a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), managing traffic is an important part of reducing risks to health and safety around your construction site. Both vehicles using public roads and vehicles entering and moving around your worksite can cause death and injury to your workers and members of the public without adequate safety measures in place.

Before you commence work, you must contact your local road authority and lodge a construction traffic management plan (CTMP) for approval. This document should be part of an overall construction safety strategy that includes a construction management safety plan and a site traffic management plan.

SSTC can help you plan and implement construction site safety measures, including vehicle route planning, ensuring a safe traffic flow around your site.

Why Vehicle Route Planning on a Construction Site Is Important

Vehicle route planning is an important part of a construction management safety plan for several reasons:

Safety

Construction is a dangerous industry, and the movement of both road traffic and on-site machinery in your site’s vicinity causes some safety concerns. Proper route planning minimises risks for drivers, machinery operators, cyclists, pedestrians, employees and anyone who may find themselves affected by what’s happening on your worksite.

Traffic flow

Construction sites close off certain routes and reduce the number of lanes available, increasing the level of congestion. Having plans in place for traffic flow stops traffic from building up excessively and leading to long delays.

Emergency vehicle access

It’s important to ensure that there are clear routes for ambulances, police cars, and fire trucks and that they can reach the scene of the emergency on time.

Access to local businesses

By keeping routes available around your site, you allow the public to continue accessing local businesses while you carry out your construction work.

Considerations When Vehicle Route Planning on a Construction Site

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Putting together a construction site traffic management plan involves taking a range of different factors into consideration. The most important variables to plan for include:

Overall details of the project

This includes the location of the construction site, the scope of the works, the hours of operation and an overview of the activities.

Construction site layout and access points

This includes the entire arrangement of the site, the entry and exit points and the routes that provide access with the least amount of congestion. Existing driveways should be shown on the plan, and temporary access points should be included as well.

Vehicle types and sizes

Your site traffic management plan needs to account for not only the vehicles on the road but also the ones on your construction site, including dump trucks and other vehicles with limited manoeuvrability.

Coordination with your activities

How do you plan to direct and reroute traffic around your construction site, and how do you plan to adjust your methods to respond to any changes in conditions?

Vehicle management specifications

Provide detailed information about the nature of the construction vehicles operating in and around your site. This includes the largest vehicle used and the frequency of truck movements, with swept path diagrams detailing how they enter and exit. If trucks can’t enter and exit the worksite in a forward motion at all times, you’ll need to consider Works Zones.

Construction Traffic Management Methods

Some common construction traffic management methods that help keep traffic flowing, workers complete projects on time, and everybody get home safely include:

Keeping traffic and pedestrians apart

If your project involves roadworks or causes disruptions to the normal flow of traffic, keeping vehicles and pedestrians apart might not be as easy as it sounds. Ways to go about it include clearly marking out pedestrian and traffic zones, setting up traffic exclusion zones for loading and unloading vehicles and establishing traffic-only routes so vehicles can pass through the site.

Prioritising safe site design

If you know you’ll be working on or near a public road, designing your site with traffic in mind reduces the risk of traffic incidents. Safer site design can include specifically designing one-way routes so traffic always travels in a forward direction and installing mirrors in strategic locations to enhance visibility.

Providing the right traffic control equipment

The most effective equipment for safe traffic control can include roadwork signs, bollards, cones, concrete barriers and communication devices like two-way radios.

Diversions and detours

Sometimes, the best approach is to redirect traffic via another route to avoid the construction site entirely. Detours should be clearly marked out, and you’ll need to liaise with local authorities to make sure they’re legal and practical.

Hiring construction traffic management personnel

Having a highly trained, competent traffic control team on the ground to direct drivers and pedestrians is essential for safety. Your traffic controllers should be highly trained, competent and able to think fast and adjust to changing situations.

Implementation of Construction Traffic Management Plans

There’s a process to conceiving a site traffic management plan and bringing it to life. First, a site risk assessment should be conducted that takes into account the condition of the roads, the usual volume of traffic, and how much extra traffic is expected. The plan itself should take into account not just the effects of the construction project on traffic but on local residents and businesses, too. It’s important to consult with stakeholders, including the authorities and businesses in the area.

Once the plan is in place, it should be clearly communicated to all stakeholders and the public through platforms like social media updates and other public announcements. It’s important to continuously monitor the plan’s effectiveness and address any issues promptly, updating the plan as necessary.

Get a Quote Today At SSTC

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SSTC can take the stress out of preparing a construction management safety plan. Trusted by some of the biggest construction companies in the country, we have over 25 years of experience and provide detailed traffic management plans, diagrams, equipment and controllers. We also work closely with our clients to ensure all traffic control measures comply with the Australian Standards for Traffic Control Devices (AS1742).

We can take care of all of your construction traffic control needs in Sydney. This includes detailed traffic control plans (TCPs), construction traffic management plans, and swept path diagrams to plan the movements of particular vehicles.

Safety is always SSTC’s highest priority. Our team of highly trained traffic controllers come with all the equipment you need, including a fleet of Utes built for the task at hand. We provide all of the equipment necessary for traffic control and have extensive experience in installing and maintaining traffic signals, including LED signals and video detection systems.

We’re also highly experienced in liaising with the authorities and procuring the right permits for your construction project. This means we can help you put together a construction management safety plan that meets all the requirements and increases your chance of getting it approved.

To find out more about our construction safety services and their benefits for your project, contact the SSTC team and get your free quote

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