Traffic & Transport
Access Design and Assessments
Access design and assessment confirms that vehicles can safely enter and leave your site — and designs the crossover, driveway or intersection treatment to make it work.
What it is
Access design and assessment deals with the point where your site meets the road: the crossover, driveway, or intersection that vehicles use to get in and out. It checks that the access is safe — adequate sight distance, appropriate geometry, safe interaction with pedestrians and passing traffic — and, where needed, designs the treatment. A poorly located or designed access is one of the most common reasons a development attracts objection from a road authority.
When you need it
You need it when a development creates a new access or changes an existing one, when an access is onto a road managed by the state road authority (which usually triggers a referral), or when sight distance, traffic volumes or safety at the access are in question. It frequently forms part of a traffic impact assessment but is also commissioned on its own.
Who requires it
Councils and state road authorities (DTP in Victoria; TMR in Queensland, as referral authorities for their roads) require access to be demonstrated as safe; developers, architects, surveyors and civil contractors commission the design and assessment.
What Arcvia assesses
Access location and spacing; sight distance in both directions; access geometry and widths; swept paths for the design vehicles; pedestrian and cyclist safety across the access; the interaction with the road's traffic and any turn treatments; and the road authority's specific requirements. Where a treatment is needed, we design it.
What you receive
An access assessment and/or design — including the supporting sight-distance and swept-path analysis and, where required, a concept or detailed access/treatment drawing — prepared to support your application and satisfy the road authority.
Standards, guidelines & authorities
Referenced to the applicable Austroads guidance (including the Guide to Road Design for access, sight distance and intersection design), the relevant Australian Standards (including AS 2890 for site access), and the road authority's specific requirements. We confirm the applicable references and the authority's expectations at scoping.
Information we need for your fee proposal
The site address and a plan showing the proposed access; the road it connects to (and whether it's a state-managed road); the development it serves; and your timeframe.
Our process
- Scoping — confirm the access, the road authority and the requirement.
- Fee proposal — scope and fee in writing.
- Assessment/design — sight distance, geometry and swept-path checks; treatment design where needed.
- Drawings & report — issued for review.
- Support — respond to the road authority's or council's questions.
Frequently asked questions
Usually yes — a new or modified access typically needs council approval, and where it's onto a state-managed road it's referred to the road authority, whose requirements can be strict. Getting the access assessed early avoids a late, expensive redesign.
Sight distance is how far a driver at your access can see approaching traffic (and be seen), so they can enter and exit safely. If it's inadequate, the authority won't accept the access as designed. We measure it against the relevant standard and, where it's short, advise how to achieve it.
Yes. Where the assessment shows a treatment is needed — a widened crossover, a turn lane, a relocated access — our engineering team can prepare the concept or detailed design to suit.
It means the state road authority is involved as a referral authority, with specific requirements around location, spacing, sight distance and turn treatments. It's manageable, but it needs to be designed to their expectations from the start. We scope exactly what your road authority requires.
Related services
- Swept-Path AnalysisSwept-path analysis uses vehicle-turning software to prove that the largest vehicles using your site can actually enter, manoeuvre and leave it safely.
- Traffic Impact Assessments (TIA)A traffic impact assessment is an engineering report that shows how a proposed development will affect the surrounding road network — and what, if anything, is needed to make it work safely.
- Engineering Design and Technical DrawingsFrom concept through to detailed design, we prepare the traffic and civil-transport drawings your project needs to gain approval and be built.
- Heavy-Vehicle AssessmentsA heavy-vehicle assessment checks that trucks, trailers and over-dimensional vehicles can access, manoeuvre and travel a route safely — and identifies what's needed to make them work.
Sectors & locations
Servicing Victoria and Queensland.
Representative work
Have a project that needs a clear way forward?
Tell us about your site access and we'll set out the scope and fee in writing.