The Queensland Traffic Management for Construction or Maintenance Work Code of Practice 2008 explains how to manage risks posed by traffic to workers and other people while construction or maintenance work is carried out on or adjacent to a road. In practical terms, the job needs suitable planning, competent people, effective traffic controls and regular checks from setup through to removal.
The Code applies in Queensland. Local WHS/OHS, road authority and council requirements vary across Australia, so always check current official material for the location of the work. National Model Codes can provide general orientation but are not automatically applicable law in every jurisdiction.
Main traffic management hazards
Contact with moving vehicles or mobile plant is the most obvious serious risk. However, traffic management also involves the surrounding conditions that can make an incident more likely.
Common hazards include:
- live traffic passing close to workers or plant
- reversing trucks, limited visibility and vehicle blind spots
- pedestrians, cyclists or residents entering the work area
- unclear, damaged, obstructed or incorrectly positioned signs
- workers setting up or removing traffic devices while exposed to traffic
- changing road surfaces, lane arrangements or access points
- poor visibility caused by darkness, glare, rain, fog or dust
- speeding, driver confusion, queues and sudden traffic movements
- noise, fatigue, heat, manual handling and slips or falls.
Risk assessment should cover the entire traffic guidance operation: setting it up, operating it, changing it between work stages and dismantling it when the job finishes.
What should be sorted before work starts?
Confirm who is responsible for planning, installing, inspecting, changing and removing the traffic arrangements. Consult workers, subcontractors, the principal contractor and other duty holders whose activities affect the same area.
Walk or drive through the proposed worksite and consider how it will appear to approaching road users. Check traffic volume and speed, sight distances, work vehicles, pedestrian routes, nearby driveways, public transport, school activity, emergency access and after-hours conditions.
Before work begins, commonly confirm:
- the approved traffic management plan or traffic guidance scheme
- safe access and exit arrangements for workers and work vehicles
- road or footpath closures, detours and required authority approvals
- signs, barriers, delineation, lighting and traffic-control devices
- arrangements for pedestrians, cyclists and people with disability
- responsibilities and communication methods for each work stage
- required training, induction and traffic controller accreditation
- inspection, maintenance, recordkeeping and emergency arrangements.
Queensland’s Code says signs and devices should suit the worksite conditions, be displayed before work starts, be regularly checked and maintained, and be removed when they are no longer required. Signing and delineation records should also be kept for roadway closures.
What good controls and documents usually cover
Where reasonably practicable, separate workers and the public from moving traffic and plant. Depending on the work, controls can include closures, detours, barriers, delineated travel paths, exclusion zones, controlled crossings, traffic controllers, portable signals, lighting and carefully scheduled vehicle movements.
A traffic plan should match the complexity of the job. Routine short-term or mobile work may use established procedures and suitable sets of devices. A simple part-road closure may require a clear layout and device list. Complex or staged work normally requires plans showing temporary traffic paths, warning devices, after-hours arrangements and instructions for installation, stage changes and removal.
For construction projects, the principal contractor’s written WHS management plan should incorporate or attach the relevant traffic management plan or traffic guidance scheme.
Where the activity is high risk construction work, the PCBU must ensure a SWMS is prepared. The SWMS should identify the high-risk work and related hazards, specify the control measures, and explain how those controls will be implemented, monitored and reviewed. A generic sample should not be treated as ready for site use: the Queensland Code’s sample requires completion and review of project-specific details before the activity begins.
Supporting documents and evidence commonly include site inductions, pre-start records, traffic device inspections, signing records, plan revisions, training records, photographs and corrective-action records.
Practical warning signs
Stop and reassess the arrangements if:
- signs have moved, fallen, become obscured or conflict with current conditions
- workers or plant repeatedly leave the protected work area
- drivers brake suddenly, appear confused or enter an exclusion zone
- pedestrians are forced into traffic or cannot follow the designated route
- vehicle queues block intersections, driveways or emergency access
- site conditions no longer match the traffic plan or SWMS
- lighting or visibility is inadequate
- responsibilities are unclear between contractors
- near misses, complaints or repeated control failures occur.
Traffic arrangements should be checked before work starts, periodically during the shift, after changes and at close-down. Problems should be corrected promptly, communicated to affected people and recorded.
How Blue Safe can help
Blue Safe provides compliant WHS documents tailored to the client’s activities, applicable Australian WHS/OHS requirements, jurisdiction and industry. Blue Safe guarantees the document compliance of the WHS documents it provides, including eligible customer documents after Blue Safe has reviewed and upgraded them.
For traffic-related work, Blue Safe can prepare or upgrade tailored traffic management procedures, traffic management plans, SWMS and supporting records. Customers actively put the compliant documents into practice through controls, consultation, training, actions, records and evidence. This supports consistent planning, clear responsibilities and verifiable implementation across the worksite.
Official sources
- Workplace Health and Safety Queensland — Traffic management for construction or maintenance work Code of Practice 2008
- Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011
- Queensland Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011
Information current as at 7 August 2026.