What are Limited Access Roads?
Limited access is a legal tool used on certain state roads to help keep them safe and efficient. It prevents too many driveways or entrances from being added directly onto these roads, helping reduce traffic risks and protecting the significant community investment in the State Road Network.
If a road is declared as limited access, landowners can only legally access it in two ways:
- from a public road that connects to the limited access road (called a “proclaimed place of access”), or
- through a private access licence, which allows access for a specific use (like residential, farming, or business). This licence is linked to a specific property title.
If a landowner wants to change how they use their access (for example, from residential to business), they can apply to update their licence. However, the change must not negatively affect the safety or flow of traffic on the road.
The number of accesses a property has cannot be increased - for example, if a property has no access, it will stay that way, if it has one access, it will keep that one. No new accesses, temporary or permanent, can be added.
Limited access restrictions can affect a wide variety of projects and property developments. When planning roadworks or assessing development proposals on a declared limited access road, it’s important to check what legal access arrangements are already in place. You can view Tasmania’s limited access roads on LISTMap, under Infrastructure and Utilities – Transportation – Limited Access Roads.
To identify which roads are limited access go to the Limited Access Roads layer on LISTmap here: maps.thelist.tas.gov.au