Bridges

Over the last 5 years (2018-2023), the Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) has seen a 400 per cent increase in heavy vehicle permit applications requiring a structural assessment (from 681 per annum to 3405 per annum).

This growth has been fuelled by the Victorian Government’s major investment in infrastructure, the construction of windfarms and innovation in the freight industry, which has boosted the number of High-Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs) on the road (30 and 36.5-metre combinations that are safer, more environmentally friendly and carry more mass than conventional freight vehicles).This growth has led to increased processing costs and up to four-month delays in transport operators obtaining permits from DTP.

As a result, DTP has expanded the pre-approved and gazetted networks on the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) National Network Map website, allowing streamlined, pre-approved access for larger, oversize vehicles, mobile cranes, and HPFV combinations.

This paper will delve into the proactive measures taken by DTP to deliver this reform initiative. These include:

• Addressing the gaps and optimising current engineering methodologies to pre-assess over 100 reference vehicles across most of the DTP bridges and major culverts (6000+);
• Providing access to older structures or structures with condition deterioration issues on the network, especially those that are part of critical routes;
• Explaining the criticality of the documentation for the future management of the networks;
• Data capturing and management of over 300,000 data points for future network management;
• Identification and implementation of uplift works to structures to support increasing access to Victoria’s arterial road network, and;
• The impacts of this works resulted in the state uplift works of the state arterial network.