Worked Example: A Week of Heavy Deliveries on a Narrow Street

Construction deliveries on a narrow street work best when each heavy delivery is treated as a short, booked lane closure: fixed time slots, a known standing position, a checked swept path, the right traffic set-up and a driver briefing on arrival. Planned as a weekly schedule, deliveries stop being daily arguments with residents and become routine.

This article walks through an example week on a tight residential site. It is a teaching scenario, not a real project. Your own traffic guidance scheme (TGS), council approvals and construction traffic management plan decide what you can do; the TGS must be prepared by a suitably qualified person. This is general information, not legal or engineering advice. For the general principles, read traffic control at construction site entrances.

The example site and street

Example scenario: a builder is constructing a small apartment block on a narrow two-way residential street. With cars parked on both sides, the street works as a single lane: drivers give way to each other between parked cars. The site has one gate, no room on site for trucks, and a council-approved works zone at the kerb outside the gate. There is a primary school two blocks away, and the street is a local shortcut in the morning peak.

This week's deliveries are:

Slots avoid the morning peak and school drop-off and pick-up wherever the work allows. The pour is the exception, because concrete sets its own timetable. Our guide to concrete pours and traffic control covers pour days in detail, and crane lifts covers Wednesday's exclusion zones and permits.

Before Monday: swept paths, standing positions and approvals

Most delivery-day problems are visible on a plan a week earlier. The builder and the traffic planner check:

• Swept paths for the largest vehicle on each route, especially the corner into the street and any turn into the gate. If a semi-trailer cannot make the corner with cars parked, the plan needs parking restrictions or a different vehicle. See construction vehicle swept-path analysis.
• Standing positions for each vehicle, marked on the TGS, with clearance from driveways, power lines and street trees.
• Approvals for the works zone, any temporary parking restrictions, the crane and Wednesday's full closure. Councils set their own conditions and lead times.
• Resident notice listing the week's heavy days, especially Wednesday's closure.
• A holding location away from the street, such as a nearby industrial road or a supplier's yard, where early trucks wait.

Under the Chain of Responsibility, parties who schedule and receive heavy vehicles have duties too. A delivery schedule should not pressure drivers into speeding or skipping rest to make a slot. The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator publishes guidance, and our article on Chain of Responsibility for traffic control companies explains how it applies.

The delivery instructions every supplier should get

Most of the week's problems start with a driver who did not know the plan. In this example, the builder sends every supplier a one-page instruction with each booking:

• The booked slot and a clear statement that trucks arriving early must wait at the holding location, not in the street.
• The approach route, including the corner to avoid and the direction to arrive from, so the truck ends up on the correct side for the works zone.
• The maximum vehicle size checked for the route, and a request to tell the builder before sending anything larger.
• The phone number to call 15 minutes out, so the crew can have the street ready.
• What happens on arrival: wait for the traffic controller's direction, do not reverse without a spotter, stay in the cab or in the marked area during unloading.
• What to do if the slot is missed: call, do not just turn up; the truck will be fitted in or rebooked.

The traffic control crew gets the same sheet, so the driver and the controller are working from one plan. When a supplier changes the vehicle on the day, such as a semi-trailer instead of the rigid truck that was booked, the crew stops and checks the swept path and standing position before the truck enters the street.

Monday: a typical stop/slow delivery, step by step

Here is how the steel delivery plays out on a typical job.

1. Crew arrives 30 minutes before the slot, completes the pre-start and SWMS sign-on, and checks radios.
2. Advance signs go up at each end of the street at the positions on the TGS, with any covers needed.
3. Controller stations: TC 1 at the north end, TC 2 at the south end, both where drivers can see them with room to stop and an escape route.
4. Works zone check: the supervisor or TC confirms the works zone is clear of parked cars. If a car is parked illegally, the builder follows the council process; the crew does not move or touch it.
5. Truck called in from the holding location by phone: "Site's ready, come in from the north."
6. Arrival: TC 1 stops northbound traffic briefly while the truck positions. Nobody reverses without a spotter.
7. Driver briefing at the window, short and the same every time: where to stand, stay in the cab or in the exclusion area, who directs you, how you'll be called out.
8. Unloading under the site's lifting procedure. Stop/slow runs past the truck in the remaining space.
9. Departure: TC 2 holds southbound traffic while the truck pulls out. Radio: "Truck leaving south, hold your traffic." "South holding." "Truck clear, release."
10. Pack-down of signs from the inside out, unless the next slot is within the hour, in which case signs stay up and are covered or turned if the TGS requires.

Tuesday and Wednesday: the harder days

The pour. In this example, agitators are booked at regular intervals, but they rarely arrive exactly on time. The traffic plan has them wait at the holding location and come in only when the previous one has discharged. A site spotter manages the agitator at the pump; the traffic controllers manage the street. The main risk is an agitator queuing in the street behind the pump, creating a second closure nobody planned. If that happens, the supervisor calls the batching plant to space the trucks out.

The crane day. Wednesday's full closure is the one residents will remember. The detour is signed at both ends; controllers at the closure points let residents in and out where the TGS and the crane's exclusion zone allow, under the supervisor's direction. Lifts are paused for any approved access through the exclusion zone. Emergency access is planned at the briefing: which barrier opens, how the crane makes its load safe, and who walks the vehicle through.

What goes wrong across the week, and the fix

• A truck arrives an hour early and parks across two driveways. The supervisor sends it to the holding location. The builder's delivery instructions to suppliers are updated to name the holding location in bold.
• The semi cannot make the corner because a resident has parked a trailer on it. The truck waits; the builder contacts the council about the restriction. The swept path assumed the restriction would be enforced, and it was not.
• Queues build behind a long unload on Thursday. TC 1 releases traffic in shorter cycles and the supervisor asks the driver to stop unloading briefly while the queue clears.
• A resident complains about noise and access. The supervisor records it, refers it to the builder's community contact and checks whether the schedule can be adjusted.

What it costs and how scheduling changes it

Traffic control is often charged per controller per hour with minimum charges. Indicative rates are about $70 to $100 or more per controller per hour, higher at night, weekends and public holidays, and minimums of four hours per controller are common. Rates vary by provider and location, so always get quotes.

Here is an example calculation using a hypothetical rate of $85 per controller per hour. If Monday's and Thursday's deliveries were booked separately with two controllers each, at a four-hour minimum, the cost is 2 controllers × 4 hours × $85 × 2 days = $1,360. If the trusses could move to Monday afternoon, straight after the steel, the same crew might cover both in one six-hour shift: 2 × 6 × $85 = $1,020. Grouping deliveries is not always possible, but it is worth asking. Try your own numbers with the free shift cost calculator.

The weekly delivery record

Use the week's record to fix next week's schedule. Check WHS requirements for work next to roads with SafeWork NSW or your state regulator, and road authority requirements with the council or Transport for NSW.

Next steps

Start with a one-page weekly delivery schedule like the one above and send it to every supplier and your traffic control company. If you provide the traffic control, TrafWise can roster each slot with clash and fatigue checks and collect signed digital dockets for every delivery.