Attachment 1 to Item 53 - Roadside Vegetation Management Plan

H AW K E S B U R Y C IT Y C O U N C IL R O AD S ID E V E G E T AT IO N M AN AG E M E N T P L AN
6 Roadside Vegetation Management
Plan – Strategic Management
Actions
6.1 ROAD SAFETY
Adequate road verge maintenance is the key to ensuring that roads remain trafficable and safe. The
following actions should be followed to ensure that a safe carriageway is provided. The road envelope
consists of the lanes, shoulder, road verge and batter. The lands, shoulder and verge are to be devoid
of vegetation. The batter is to be, while vegetation on the batter is not to be removed. It is imperative
that these guidelines are followed strictly to ensure impacts on roadside vegetation are minimised.
Intersections
• Austroads has a number of guidelines/standards in relation to sight distances for different
situations and sight triangles at intersections. Sight distances and sight triangles at
intersections are to be managed in accordance with Austroad standards (Austroads 2009).
Standards for adequate sight distance for different situations can be found in “Guide to
Traffic Engineering Practice” Published by Austroads.
• Where vegetation removal is required, assessment as to whether the vegetation to be
cleared is an EEC is required. If so further assessments will be required from DECCW and
appropriate offsets may be required.
Sealed Roads
• On sealed roads, the road envelope will have a minimum vertical height of 5.5 m 1 except
on designated high clearance routes where it will be 6 m (Austroads 2009).
• The width of the road envelope will be from 500 mm on the outer side of the white road
post, to 500 mm on the outer side of the white road post, on the other side of the road.
This provides for two lanes each being 3.5 m wide, the shoulder being 1.5 – 2.0 m wide
(depending on the volume of traffic) and the road verge width being 1 m (Austroads 2009).
The batter will have a minimum width of 1 m and up to 6 m depending on the slope of the
batter or if a greater sight distance is required (Austroads 2009) (Figure 3).
• Vegetation outside of these clearance distances (heights and widths) should not be cleared
or disturbed, unless a full assessment of their impacts are performed and approval given.
Unsealed Roads
• On unsealed roads, the road envelope will have a vertical height of 5.5 m (Austroads
2009).
1 Austroads (2009) does not provide clearance heights for vegetation. Hence the standard clearance heights for
major roads and other roads have been adopted for clearance heights of vegetation.
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