SAFETY
SAFELY SUPPLYING
CONSTRUCTION
FOLLOWING A $7.5 BILLION FEDERAL INJECTION FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS, THE AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH BOARD HAS RELEASED A NEW GUIDE TO IMPROVE CONSTRUCTION LOGISTICS SAFETY AROUND THE COMMUNITY. BASED ON A SUCCESSFUL MODEL FROM THE UK, IT IS HOPED TO SAVE AUSTRALIAN LIVES.
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oad Safety Week in Australia takes place from 15 November to 22 November in 2020. It’s a week for commemoration of the 1200 people that died on Australian roads last year, but also a week to kick start change. This year the campaign is launching a pledge, for all drivers to commit to safer road practices. The Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) plays a large role in releasing guidelines and best practice initiatives for safety concerning road use and construction. This year ARRB has released the Construction Logistics and Community Safety – Australia (CLOCS-A) initiative which highlights good practice approaches to managing safety associated with a construction project’s on-road transportation and logistics. With $7.5 billion committed to the country’s pipeline of infrastructure projects,
we can expect to see many more trucks on Australia’s roads that are transporting key materials needed to underpin our infrastructure development. The CLOCS-A guide is intended to reinforce safe practices for companies and drivers of these vehicles but also for the asset managers of the roads they are driving on. In Victoria alone, 145 pedestrians and cyclists were killed or seriously injured in crashes involving a heavy vehicle between July 2013 and March 2019. Ninety-nine or 68 per cent of those fatal or serious injuries occurred in 30 to 60 kilometre per hour speed zones, which are typically located in metropolitan areas or city centres, often frequented by mixed-use traffic. CLOCS-A was developed by ARRB in collaboration with the National Road Safety Partnership Program and was supported by grant funding from the
NHVR’s Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative. ARRB saw a gap in consistent safety advice relevant to the construction logistics sector which inspired the idea for the guide. Based on the United Kingdom’s successful CLOCS program, CLOCS-A will aim to reduce road trauma associated with construction logistics. Stephanie Davy, Senior Professional, Transport Safety at ARRB, was instrumental in the creation of this guide. She says after engaging with industry she could see that each of the states in Australia operated differently, with varied approaches to community road safety issues relating to heavy vehicles. “There just isn’t a lot of consistent advice out there and that is particularly challenging for heavy vehicle operators that work across borders. This is something that had been identified by some projects which had drivers needing to meet different roadsonline.com.au
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