At their meeting last night Council received a report to advise Council on roads known to be used by non-permitted restricted access vehicles.
At the February 2025 Ordinary Council Meeting a question was taken on notice asking for a list of roads that trucking companies use outside their permits. Permits or assessed approved routes are required for all heavy vehicles that exceed the general access category for access on the road system. These vehicles are generally referred to as Restricted Access Vehicles.
The trigger for a vehicle being a Restricted Access Vehicle may be its total length, gross mass including payload, total width, total height or any combination of those factors.
Commonly Restricted Access Vehicles include:
• B Doubles
• A Doubles
• Road trains
• Stock floats (height clearances)
• Cranes
• Over width
• Controlled access for buses
• Defence force vehicles
• Concrete pumps
• Bucket trucks
• Truck mounted boring rigs
• large over length/width loads like wind farm components.
Restricted Access Vehicles need a National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) issued permit or must travel a route that has been assessed and approved for use for that vehicle type.
To issue permits or approve routes the following points (but not limited to) need to be considered:
• Road width
• Road geometry (straights, curves, dips and crests and the speed standard these are designed to)
• Intersections and access points using vehicle swept paths (the “footprint” or shadow line of the vehicle, in plan view, that it covers or “sweeps” of the road area by the outermost and innermost points of the vehicle as it moves forward and negotiates an intersection, access point or tight curve. • Vegetation limitations
• Pavement strength, including its age and drainage
• Bridges/Culverts – Structural strength and behaviour under load and width
• Purpose. Is there a need directly on this road or is the route proposed a ‘short cut’ affecting the amenity of those that live and work about this road/street.
The report says that Road Managers, including Council, need to ensure that the road asset is not going to be compromised with the release of a permit or route approval. Alongside this aspect is the matter of road safety, ensuring all road users can still travel that road without any additional safety risk contributed to by the access requested.
Council uses traffic counters that can identify vehicle type, travel direction and speed.
Council said they will continue to monitor data to identify priority areas for enforcement actions or road upgrades. They said any enforcement action would need to be undertaken by the South East Weight of Loads Group, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator or NSW Police Force.
The report states that not having comprehensive data is a risk to Council in terms of scheduling works as well as design work (data used in pavement and reseal design). The data is also useful for grant applications and informing staff on safety matters (like excessive speed) and mitigation measures to reduce that risk to road users.
Council staff said they continue to engage with the South East Weight of Loads Group and National Heavy Vehicle Regulator as well as other authorities such as Transport for NSW and NSW Police Force.
-Jack Murray
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