More than 70 people from a range of city, regional and rural councils across Australia attended the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator’s (NHVR) first Council Engineers’ Heavy Vehicle Access Seminar at the NHVR headquarters in Brisbane last month.
Stakeholder Specialist Tim Hansen said the two-day event included presentations from NHVR and industry experts, as well as a field trip to a crane, PBS and an OSOM operator in a bid to help councils understand the challenges faced by heavy vehicle operators and how we can all work together to better manage the freight task.
“We want to inform and empower council engineers in their roles as road managers to expand their networks and work with industry to improve productivity and safety in their local freight tasks,” Tim said.
“The event was an overwhelming success, with engineers coming from as far as Tatiara and the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia to Thargomindah and the Whitsundays in Queensland.”
Tim added that since the event, some councils have already taken actions to improve their road networks, including nominating more pre-approved routes and establishing working groups to liaise with local industry representatives.
“A range of councils showcased efforts they’ve already made to better manage their freight task, such as Walcha and Moira Shire Councils and City of Gold Coast Council, all of whom provided some great examples and inspiration,” he said.