Traffic & Transport
Road Safety Audits (RSA)
A road safety audit is an independent, systematic check of a road or project by qualified auditors to identify safety issues before they cause crashes.
What it is
A road safety audit (RSA) is a formal, independent review of a road project or existing road, carried out by qualified road safety auditors, to identify potential safety problems for all road users and recommend how to address them. It is a proactive check — the point is to find and fix issues on the drawing board or on the road before they contribute to crashes. Audits are structured around a recognised process and reported against defined risk levels.
When you need it
Road safety audits are commonly required at defined stages of a road or development project — feasibility, preliminary design, detailed design, pre-opening — and can also be carried out on an existing road to investigate a known problem. Authorities frequently require an RSA as a condition of approval for works that affect the road network, and asset owners commission them to manage risk across their networks.
Who requires it
Road authorities, local councils, developers whose works affect public roads, and contractors delivering road projects commonly require RSAs. State road authorities (DTP in Victoria; TMR in Queensland) set the requirements for audits on the roads they manage, including who is qualified to carry them out.
What Arcvia assesses
An audit considers safety for every road user — drivers, riders, pedestrians, cyclists and heavy vehicles — across factors such as geometry and sight distance, intersection layout and control, signage and line-marking, lighting, roadside hazards, speed environment, access arrangements, and provision for vulnerable users. We report each issue with a risk rating and a practical recommendation.
What you receive
An audit report that lists each identified safety issue, its risk rating, and a clear, actionable recommendation — written so the project team and asset owner can decide what to do about each finding. Where useful, we include annotated plans or photos so issues are easy to locate.
Standards, guidelines & authorities
Audits are conducted with reference to the current Austroads Guide to Road Safety audit guidance and the relevant state requirements. In Victoria, road safety audits on the state-managed network operate within the DTP framework; the Victorian Road Safety Auditor Register is managed by Austroads (from early in the 2025/26 financial year), with DTP retaining responsibility for the accreditation program (verified 2026-07-31). In Queensland, audits follow TMR's requirements.
Information we need for your fee proposal
The audit stage required (design stage or existing road); the project plans or road location and extent; any brief or condition of approval requiring the audit; the road manager involved; and your timeframe.
Our process
- Enquiry & scoping — confirm the audit stage and what the authority requires.
- Fee proposal — scope, audit team and fee in writing.
- Document review & site inspection — including a site visit where the stage requires it (day and, where relevant, night).
- Audit analysis — issues identified and risk-rated by the audit team.
- Audit report — findings and recommendations issued.
- Response support — we can help interpret findings and, where engaged, review the design response.
Frequently asked questions
Audits are usually done at set project stages — feasibility, preliminary (concept) design, detailed design, and pre-opening — and can also be carried out on an existing, in-service road. Each stage looks at safety with the information available at that point, so issues are caught as early and as cheaply as possible to fix.
Audits must be carried out by qualified, independent auditors — and for audits on state-managed roads, authorities require auditors to hold the relevant accreditation. Independence matters: the auditor should not be the person who designed the project.
No. An RSA identifies specific safety issues on a particular road or design and rates their risk. A Safe System assessment is a broader, framework-based evaluation of how well a project aligns with Safe System principles (the aim of eliminating death and serious injury). They complement each other, and some projects benefit from both — we can advise which your project needs.
If your development includes new or modified public road works — a new intersection, an altered access, a road upgrade — the authority may require an RSA as a condition. If your works are entirely within a private site, an audit may not be required, though a safety review can still be worthwhile. We can tell you what applies to your project.
Related services
- Safe System AssessmentsA Safe System assessment evaluates how well a road project reduces the risk of death and serious injury, using the nationally adopted Safe System framework.
- Black Spot and Funding AssistanceWe help councils and organisations identify eligible locations and prepare the road safety evidence and submissions that funding programs — including the Australian Government Black Spot Program — require.
- 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.
- Line-Marking and Signage PlansLine-marking and signage plans set out the pavement markings and signs a car park, road or site needs to operate safely and comply with the standards.
Sectors & locations
Servicing Victoria and Queensland.
Representative work
Have a project that needs a clear way forward?
Tell us about the road or project and we'll set out the audit scope, team and fee in writing.