The RMS has offered conditional acceptance along the Mitchell Highway north of Bourke to Queensland.
The first road manager consent to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has been granted for a prescriptive BAB-quad on the currently approved Type 2 road train route on the Mitchell Highway between North Bourke and the Queensland border at Barringun.
Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) says Transport for NSW has completed a review of the NSW access policy for Type 2 road train quad trailer combinations and has now opened access on this approved route for prescriptive BAB and ABB-quad combinations under equivalent conditions to those which apply to current legacy A-triple Type 2 road trains.
Operation for these two quad trailer combinations is also available up to 4.6m high on this route.
Previous policy required such combinations to be first approved through the national Performance Based Standards (PBS) Scheme.
“Access for AAB Quad road trains will be considered on a case by case basis and subject to demonstrated performance being no worse than the current A-triple’s performance,” an RMS regulatory update states.
“Due to the additional axles and thus increased total mass of this combination, additional bridge assessments may be required.
Due to the unknown comparative performance of the BAA-quad road trains, this access decision does not apply to them.
“This combination will continue to require a vehicle approval through the PBS scheme before access is considered by Roads and Maritime,” the update adds.
RMS says it would appreciate any feedback via the Road Freight email address – roadfreight@rms.nsw.gov.au – regarding the opening up of this access and how it might benefit transport operations.