Land Development Engineering

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  • 1.  New Subdivisions/developments, Certifiers & Road Safety Audits

    Posted 03-07-2018 11:35
    ​​Hi All

    I posted the item below on the Road Safety communities discussion & only had one private reply, thanks to that person.
    As this involves land development I was wondering if any Development Engineers have a thought on this matter.

    New residential subdivisions consisting of new roads, shared paths, etc being created on private lands can be Certified by Accredited Certifiers (in NSW). Some Councils impose a consent condition requiring the subdivision to have a Road Safety Audit (RSA) carried out on the roads, etc of the proposed subdivision. The RSA generally has a statement to the effect that "...it is ultimately the responsibility of the Project Manager & Road Authority to determine how best to respond to the identified deficiencies" Additionally, How would the prospective Roads Authority be involved in the correct action proposal?
    In this regard, how is the Council as the Roads Authority involved in satisfactorily & appropriately managing mitigating measures for the identified safety deficiencies?
    Generally, the Auditors recommend treatments at the lower end of the order or the hierarchy of controls to minimise costs, resulting mostly in inadequate measures to eliminate or manage the safety deficiencies?
    Has anyone contested the proposed dedication of any public roads due to safety concerns?
    Thoughts?
    thanks
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  • 2.  RE: New Subdivisions/developments, Certifiers & Road Safety Audits

    Posted 11-07-2018 11:14
    ​Adam,

    Thanks for that. The Roads Authority will have two roles to play - one as the Safety Engineer and one as the Project Manager ? Development Engineer who has responsibility for ensuring that the development complies with the consent granted.  It is best that both of these roles be independent of each other as the Safety Engineer is the person who has the responsibility for managing the road safety impacts and accordingly may disagree with recommendations made by the subdividers designers in response to some of the safety audit team recommendations.  This is likely to be in those situations where the Designers Response does not adequately address the safety issue raised by the safety audit team.  It is important that the safety audit team to be used will be agreed by both the Roading Authority and the subdivider or their designer as this then puts an onus of impartiality on the safety audit team.

    Once the safety engineer has provided their recommendations, that safety audit forms part of the overall consent conditions so does need to be actioned by the subdivider accordingly prior to final compliance being signed off by the Roading Authority.

    In my experience as a Safety Engineer for a Road Authority, there have been no major issues arising given that designers have typically though about road safety in their design.

    Regards
    Bruce Conaghan
    TSD Transport Team leader
    Christchurch City Council
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