Rural, non-State Government owned roads are the focus of this initiative because they:
- Typically carry lower volumes of traffic than strategic corridors; and as a result
- may not be likely to attract sufficient funding for major upgrades (e.g. shoulder sealing, lane separation) in the medium to long term.
By way of background and context:
- Local government roads comprise approximately 80% of the Tasmanian public road network (14,500 of 18,300km).
- Of this 14,500km, approximately 10,700km (78%) are in rural areas (i.e. outside of recognised city and town boundaries).
These 10,700km account for approximately one-third of fatal and serious injury crashes.
Applicants should refer to the Austroads research report Local Government Road Safety Management Guidance, released in January 2020. This report is designed to provide guidance on contemporary best practice methods on the development and implementation road safety management frameworks suitable for use in a local government context. The report can be accessed at https://austroads.com.au/publications/road-safety/ap-r612-20. An accompanying webinar has been developed by Austroads and can be found at https://austroads.com.au/publications/road-safety/web-r612-20.
Local road safety issues are often best dealt with at a local level. Local councils and road owners are well placed to identify specific problems and devise appropriate infrastructure-based treatments.
The program aims to:
Enable local government to undertaken corridor-based infrastructure treatments to improve road safety on rural, non-State-Government-owned roads.
The program is funded from the Road Safety Levy and administered by the Department of State Growth (State Growth).