Worked Example: Managing Concrete Trucks at a Tight Residential Site

Concrete truck traffic management at a tight residential site comes down to sequencing: hold trucks off the street, call them forward one at a time, reverse each into position with a dedicated spotter, and keep pedestrians and residents' driveways moving around the pump. The plan, permits and TGS are settled before pour day, not at 6 am.

This is an example scenario, from the planning call to the last truck. It is not a real builder, supplier or incident. It is written for builders, site supervisors and traffic control crews who run residential pours on narrow streets. It is not legal or engineering advice: the traffic guidance scheme (TGS) must be prepared by a suitably qualified person, and council conditions apply. For the bigger picture, see our guide to concrete pours and traffic control.

The example site

Example scenario: a builder is pouring the ground floor slab for a duplex on a narrow suburban street.

• Street: a two-way local road, posted 50 km/h, cars parked on both sides, leaving room for one moving vehicle at a time in places.
• Site: mid-block, with a single crossover, power lines along the front and a footpath used by school children and dog walkers.
• Neighbours: driveways either side of the site and three opposite.
• Pour: an estimated 40 cubic metres, pumped with a boom pump standing on the road in front of the site.
• Hours: pump on site 6:30 am, first truck 7 am, council's permitted hours apply.
• Crew: a traffic control supervisor (who also acts as TC 1), TC 2 on the footpath and pedestrian side, the pump operator and the concreting crew.

The TGS shows a partial road closure in front of the site for the pump, with the remaining lane managed by stop/slow for truck movements, footpath closure with a pedestrian route on the opposite side, and a holding point for trucks on a wider collector road around the corner.

Two weeks out: the planning call

Pour days go wrong at the planning stage. In the example, the builder, the concrete supplier, the pump company and the traffic control company hold a 20-minute call two weeks out to settle the following.

1. Pump position. Where the outriggers go, clear of the power lines' exclusion zone, and how much road the pump takes. The pump company confirms the set-up area.
2. Truck path. Agitator trucks will arrive from the collector road, reverse a short distance to the pump hopper, discharge, and drive out forwards. The TGS designer checks the swept path. Our guide to construction vehicle swept-path analysis explains what that check involves.
3. Holding point. Trucks wait on the collector road where parking is legal, not outside houses.
4. Truck rate. The supplier and pump operator agree the spacing of trucks.
5. Washout. A contained washout area inside the site boundary, not the gutter.
6. Permits. The builder applies to council for standing plant on the road and the footpath occupation, attaching the TGS.
7. Residents. A notice goes out a week before. See our resident notification template.

Here is an example calculation for truck spacing, using assumed figures. Real numbers come from the supplier and pump operator on the day.

The calculation tells everyone two useful things: only one truck should be at the pump at a time, and one more should be waiting at the holding point, ready to call forward.

Pour day: 6 am pre-start and set-up

The supervisor arrives at 6 am. The pre-start, with the concreting crew and pump operator, covers:

• the TGS, the closed area and the open lane
• the pump's set-up zone and boom swing, and the power lines
• the truck path, the reversing point and the spotter (the concreting crew's leading hand, named)
• the hold rule: pedestrians and passing traffic are held while a truck reverses
• the call-forward: TC 1 phones the next truck at the holding point when the current truck is half discharged
• radio channel between TC 1 and TC 2, and hand signals with the spotter
• residents' driveway access plan
• escape routes and SWMS sign-on

Set-up runs in TGS order: advance warning signs on both approaches, the partial closure in front of the site, stop/slow positions, footpath closure signs at each end with the pedestrian route to the opposite side, then the pump moves in and sets up inside the closed area.

The supervisor walks the street, then drives it. The finding: a resident's car parked across from the site makes the open lane too tight for a truck to pass the pump. The supervisor knocks on the door, the resident moves the car into their driveway for the morning, and the note goes in the diary. If the resident had not been home, the answer would be to adjust the plan with the builder and designer, not to squeeze trucks past.

The pour: truck by truck

7:00 am. Truck 1. TC 1 stops traffic in the open lane, TC 2 holds two school children on the footpath at the closure sign. The spotter guides the truck back to the hopper, stays visible in the driver's mirror and never stands behind it. Our guide to reversing plant and spotters covers spotter positions. Once the truck is stopped and braked, TC 1 releases traffic and TC 2 lets the children through on the pedestrian route.

7:08 am. Truck 2 arrives early. It drives straight to the site instead of waiting at the holding point and stops in the street outside a neighbour's driveway. TC 1 asks the driver to go back to the holding point and calls the supplier's dispatcher to repeat the arrangement. The early truck is the most common pour-day problem.

7:25 am. Resident needs to leave. The neighbour on the left needs to drive out. Truck 1 is still discharging. TC 1 holds the open lane, the spotter confirms the pump boom is not swinging over the driveway, and the resident is walked out and released into the open lane.

7:45 am. Truck 1 leaves, truck 2 is called forward. The call was made at half discharge, so truck 2 arrives just as truck 1 drives away. No queue in the street.

8:30 am. Garbage truck. It is collection day. The council's waste truck needs to pass. TC 1 holds traffic, the waste truck passes at walking pace once the agitator is stopped, and the bins outside the closed area are collected by hand by the crew afterwards. Coordinating with waste services beforehand would have avoided this; it goes on the lessons list.

9:15 am. A dog walker steps into the closed area. While truck 5 reverses, a dog walker steps off the opposite footpath to cross directly to the site. TC 2 calls "hold" on the radio, the spotter signals the driver to stop, and the walker is redirected. The near miss is recorded.

Common pour-day mistakes and the fix

Pack-down and the pour-day record

After the last truck, the pump retracts and packs up inside the closed area. The supervisor checks the road and footpath for spilt concrete and slurry, which can be a slip hazard and an environmental issue, and has the concreting crew clean it before devices come out. Pack-down then runs in reverse: footpath closure last if pedestrians still need protecting from site activity, otherwise in reverse of set-up, with advance signs collected last.

The truck times matter commercially as well. If the batching plant runs late and the job runs past the booked hours, the record explains the overtime. As an example calculation with a purely hypothetical rate: two controllers booked for 6 hours at $85 an hour is $1,020 before travel, vehicles and extras; an extra hour each adds $170. Indicative client rates of about $70 to $100 or more per controller per hour vary by provider, location and time, so always get quotes. See construction site traffic management for site entrance arrangements on longer builds.

For heavy vehicle duties, check the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator; for plant and pedestrian safety, SafeWork NSW and Safe Work Australia.

Next steps

Before your next residential pour, hold a short planning call with the supplier and pump company, set a holding point, and name the spotter at the pre-start. To estimate controller hours and costs for the booking, try the free shift cost calculator.