Traffic management and access

 

Part of a traffic management plan may include people controlling or directing traffic at certain stages.

If the construction of your house is going to affect local traffic, pedestrian access or plant movements anywhere near the site, it’s up to your builder (as the Principal Contractor) to ensure that it’s safely managed.

What is a traffic management plan?

Your builder will need to submit a traffic management plan to the local council for their approval before any site work begins – this may also be referred to as a ‘construction traffic management plan, or something similar. The traffic management plan will normally follow the format required by the local council.

This traffic plan should normally detail things like:

• what sort of work is being done
• a plan for how work is going to be done
• existing traffic conditions (pedestrian and road traffic, parking and so forth)
• the maximum number and tonnage of construction vehicles that will come and go from the site at any one time
• where vehicle access exists to and from the site
• the route which construction vehicles will take to get to the site
• queuing locations for construction vehicles entering the site
• where construction work will impose on public grounds (e.g. footpaths), and for how long
• where oversized vehicles will go, and how long they’ll be there
• when construction vehicles will come and go from the site
• whether (and how) loading and unloading materials will affect traffic
• how traffic will be managed where necessary

How is traffic managed?

Some of the things that are likely to be done in order to minimise the disruption to vehicular and pedestrian traffic might include:

• detour routes and signage
• traffic controllers, special signs
• temporary pedestrian diversions or detours
• arranging for large deliveries or removals to happen during off-peak times