Road Freight Keeps on Trucking in NSW through Weather Crisis

Increased access for higher productivity vehicles on the road network has been fast tracked by the NSW Government to ensure freight operators can keep essential supplies moving into flood-impacted areas in the regions.

Deputy Premier and Minister responsible for Disaster Recovery John Barilaro said the priority right now is to ensure roads are accessible, places are safe for people to return, and businesses can continue to operate.

'The 2019/20 bushfires and the clean-up and recovery efforts that followed taught us a great deal, and having worked on bushfire recovery for the past 15 months, I am taking that experience and those lessons with me to steer recovery following these extreme floods,' Mr Barilaro said.

'The flooding has impacted a number of our rail lines and we are working to get them back up and running as soon as possible. In the interim, we are ensuring we can move essential goods by road in safe modern transport vehicles.'

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole said flooding had significantly impacted the movement of freight across the State, preventing operations along a number of rail lines and disrupting access through multiple north-south road corridors.

'Currently, many roads are only available to 26 metre B-Double heavy vehicles but under the changes, we are opening up a new access network to Higher Productivity Vehicles that meet Performance Based Standard level 2B on the State managed road network,' Mr Toole said.

'This means safer, modern vehicles of up to 30 metres long fitted with telematics that can carry up to 33 per cent more than a 26 metre B Double, meaning we can get more essential supplies in faster.'

A map of the roads open to Performance Based Standard Tier 1 level 2B vehicles is available on the Transport for NSW Restricted Access Vehicle mapping site.

Access will still be under a permit for some time, however a permit to access a network rather than specific routes can be provided to road operators. You can apply for an access permit via the NHVR access portal.

In another significant flood response, conditional access on the M1 motorway will be considered for modular B Triple road trains up to 35 meters long, fitted with telematics and advanced safety technologies to move more essential goods along the north south route, which is still heavily affected by the recent rains.

For more information go to on the PBS 2B network visit www.nswroads.work/ravmap

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