Traffic & Transport
Swept-Path Analysis
Swept-path analysis uses vehicle-turning software to prove that the largest vehicles using your site can actually enter, manoeuvre and leave it safely.
What it is
Swept-path analysis models the path a vehicle's body and wheels sweep as it turns, so you can confirm that a design vehicle — a car, a waste truck, a semi-trailer, a fire appliance — can access and move through a site without hitting kerbs, columns, walls or parked cars. It turns “it should fit” into “here is the drawing that shows it fits.” It is one of the most requested checks for car parks, loading areas, service access and intersection design.
When you need it
You need swept-path analysis whenever a design has to accommodate specific vehicles in a constrained space — access driveways and crossovers, car park aisles and ramps, loading docks and waste-collection points, service-vehicle routes, and any intersection or road layout that heavy or long vehicles must negotiate. Councils and referral authorities frequently ask for swept-path plans as part of a planning application to confirm access works.
Who requires it
Architects, building designers, developers, surveyors and civil contractors commission swept-path plans to support their designs and applications; councils and road authorities require them as evidence that access and manoeuvring are workable and safe.
What Arcvia assesses
Using recognised vehicle-turning software, our engineering team checks entry and exit movements, internal circulation and aisle widths, ramp and grade transitions, loading and waste-collection manoeuvres, and clearances to kerbs, columns and boundaries — for the specific design vehicles relevant to your site, at the appropriate template dimensions.
What you receive
Clear swept-path drawings (plan view) showing each critical movement for each design vehicle, with clearances demonstrated, plus commentary where a manoeuvre is tight or a design change is recommended. The drawings are prepared to sit within your planning set or design documentation.
Standards, guidelines & authorities
Analysis references the applicable Australian Standards for parking and access — commonly AS 2890 (the Parking facilities series, including AS 2890.1 for off-street car parking and AS 2890.2 for off-street commercial vehicle facilities) — together with the relevant Austroads design vehicle dimensions and any specific authority or waste-collection vehicle requirements. We confirm the exact design vehicles and standards for your site at scoping.
Information we need for your fee proposal
A CAD or PDF plan of the layout (ideally to scale); the vehicles that need to be accommodated (or the use, so we can advise); the site address; and your timeframe.
Our process
- Scoping — confirm the design vehicles and standards.
- Fee proposal — scope and fee in writing.
- Modelling — run the turning analysis for each critical movement.
- Drawings — issue swept-path plans, with recommendations where needed.
- Iteration — where a movement doesn't work, we advise on the layout change and re-run.
Frequently asked questions
It's a check, done with specialist vehicle-turning software, that models how a vehicle sweeps through a turn — showing whether a given vehicle can physically enter, move through and exit a space with adequate clearance. It's the standard way to prove access and manoeuvring work before anything is built.
That depends on the use: a small development might only need a car and a passenger/removalist van, while an industrial or retail site needs the largest service or delivery vehicle, and every site with kerbside waste collection needs the relevant waste truck. We confirm the right design vehicle(s) with you and against the applicable standards.
Yes — a swept-path check before lodgement often catches access and manoeuvring problems while they're still cheap to fix. Send us the layout and the vehicles to accommodate and we'll model it and flag anything that doesn't work.
Often, yes. Where a movement doesn't fit, we identify the constraint (aisle width, column position, ramp grade, kerb line) and advise the smallest change that makes it comply, then re-run to confirm. The goal is a layout that works and satisfies the authority.
Related services
- Access Design and AssessmentsAccess 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Sectors & locations
Servicing Victoria and Queensland.
Representative work
Have a project that needs a clear way forward?
Send us your layout and the vehicles to accommodate, and we'll set out the scope and fee in writing.