National Harmonisation of Temporary Traffic Management Practice: Benefit–Cost Analysis

This report details an economic evaluation of Austroads’s proposal for national harmonisation of temporary traffic management practice. The study used a breakeven analysis to estimate the reduction in crash costs at roadside worksites that would be needed to at least equal the costs of the Austroads proposal. Drawing on crash data supplied by state/territory agencies for the study and other published sources, the study estimated that nationally there are 18 fatal crashes, 245 serious injury crashes and 530 minor injury crashes at roadside worksites annually. Over a 10‑year period at a 4% discount rate the total cost of those crashes would be $3.2 billion. The study found that a crash reduction at roadside worksites of approximately 5% would yield a reduction in crash costs that was equal to the costs of the Austroads proposal. This is equivalent to the total of the following annual crash reductions: 0.8 fewer fatal crashes, 11.7 fewer serious injury crashes and 25.4 fewer minor injury crashes per year.