Road Traffic Act 1961

In this section—

a road that is under the care, control and management of the

a road, or road of a class, prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this definition;

a

the

a council;

any other authority, body or person authorised by statute to carry out works on roads;

an authority, body or person prescribed by the regulations;

on which workers are, or may be, engaged; or

on which vehicles or equipment relating to any works are placed; or

that is otherwise affected by works in progress (whether those works are occurring on the road or elsewhere);

A person exercising powers or performing functions under, or for the purposes of, this section must, in doing so, seek to protect the safety of workers, road users and other members of the public whilst having due regard to the inconvenience caused by traffic disruptions and the need to maintain reasonable traffic flows.

An authority, body or person must, with a relevant authorisation and in accordance with this Part and any regulations made for the purposes of this Part, place signs on a road for the purpose of indicating a maximum speed to be observed by drivers while driving on, by or towards a work area or work site where workers are engaged, or works are in progress, at the direction of that authority, body or person.

An authority, body or person has a relevant authorisation, for the purposes of subsection (3), to place speed limit signs on a road—

if the authority, body or person holds a permit issued by the Minister under this section (a roadworks permit) and the signs are placed on the road in accordance with the permit;

if—

the authority, body or person is a public authority; and

the work is required to be undertaken by the public authority as a matter of urgency; and

the signs are placed on the road in accordance with an approval of the

the

the signs are placed on the road for a period not exceeding 24 hours or such longer period as may be determined by the Minister on an application under subsection (9);

if—

the signs will not relate to any prescribed roads; and

the signs are placed on the road in accordance with an approval of the

An authority, body or person must not close any portion of a prescribed road in connection with a work area or work site unless the authority, body or person holds a roadworks permit and closes the road in accordance with the permit.

An application for a roadworks permit must be made in a manner determined by the Minister (which may differ between applications according to factors determined by the Minister) and be accompanied by a fee fixed by, or calculated in accordance with, the regulations.

A roadworks permit—

must specify the period during which the permit remains in force; and

may specify periods within which specified works are to be completed, or specified actions are to be taken, and may impose monetary penalties on the permit holder for a failure to complete such work, or to take such action, within the specified period (and such penalties will be recoverable by the Minister as a debt); and

must include conditions requiring the holder of the permit to undertake risk assessment and other work site planning processes in accordance with requirements specified in the permit, or a standard or other document specified in the permit; and

may be subject to such other conditions as the Minister thinks fit; and

may be varied at any time by the Minister (including, without limitation, by extending any period or periods specified in the permit); and

may be suspended or revoked at any time by the Minister (including, without limitation, as a penalty for breach of conditions of the permit or while any alleged breach of conditions is under investigation).

Without limiting the circumstances in which the Minister may refuse to issue a roadworks permit, the Minister may refuse to issue such a permit if any person who has been found guilty of an offence against section 21 is to be responsible for installing, displaying, altering, operating or removing speed limit signs pursuant to the permit.

An application to the Minister for an extension of the 24 hour period referred to in subsection (4)(b)(v)—

may be made by telephone or any other manner prescribed by the regulations; and

must be made at least 3 hours before the end of that 24 hour period (unless the Minister is satisfied that there were good reasons for a delay in making the application).

The maximum speed to be indicated by speed limit signs is as follows:

for a category 1 hazardous work area—40 kilometres an hour;

for a category 2 hazardous work area—25 kilometres an hour;

for a work site—

if the speed limit signs are placed on a road in accordance with a roadworks permit and the Minister has, either in the permit or by notice in writing to the holder of the permit, specified a maximum speed limit for the purposes of this paragraph—a maximum speed not exceeding the speed limit so specified; or

in any other case—a maximum speed not exceeding 80 kilometres an hour.

An authority, body or person that has placed speed limit signs on a road must ensure—

that the speed limit signs, or at least 1 other sign placed in, or in the vicinity of, the work area or work site, make it clear to road users that the speed limit signs relate to such an area or site (whether by including relevant symbols, the words "work area",

that the speed limit signs are not in place on the road during any period during which—

workers are not engaged at the work area; and

the area of road affected by the works, or by vehicles or equipment relating to the works, does not involve a greater than normal level of hazard for persons using the road.

If subsection (11)(b) is not complied with in relation to any speed limit signs—

the speed limit signs are of no effect for the purposes of this Act or any other Act or law during the period of non‑compliance; and

an authorised officer may alter or remove the speed limit signs.

If a public authority has engaged a contractor to carry out works on behalf of the authority, the contractor will, in relation to those works, be treated as if they were the authority for the purposes of this Act (and if the public authority holds an approval under section 17, or a roadworks permit, in respect of those works, the contractor will be treated as if they were the holder of that approval or permit).

This section does not apply to or in relation to—

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an authority, body or person, or class of authority, body or person, prescribed by regulation; or

a work area or work site, or class of work area or work site, prescribed by regulation.

For the purposes of this section, workers will be taken to be engaged at a work area—

if the workers are present in the area or in the vicinity of the area;

if the workers are temporarily absent from the area for a period not exceeding 2 hours.

The regulations may prescribe standards or requirements for determining, for the purposes of this section—

whether or not a work area involves a hazard to workers or a greater than normal level of hazard for persons using the road; and

whether or not a work area involves an unusually high level of hazard to workers or persons using the road; and

the circumstances in which a portion of road will be taken to be—

affected by works in progress; or

used to regulate traffic in relation to works or for associated purposes;

the circumstances in which work will be taken to be required to be undertaken by a public authority as a matter of urgency.

This section has effect despite any other Act or law.