Road Traffic (Administration) Act 2008

In this section —

a road declared by Order in Council under the Public Works Act 1902 section 86(2) to be a Government road; or

a highway or main road as those terms are defined in the Main Roads Act 1930;

traffic comprising heavy vehicles; or

a high volume of traffic.

Where it appears to the road authority that has functions in relation to the repair of road infrastructure that, having regard to the average expense of repairing road infrastructure in the vicinity, extraordinary expenses have been incurred by the road authority in repairing the road infrastructure because of damage caused by heavy traffic, the road authority may recover the amount of the expenses as may be proved to the satisfaction of the court to have been incurred by the road authority because of damage caused by heavy traffic.

Those expenses may be recovered —

from a person by, or in consequence of, whose directions the heavy traffic has been conducted; and

by proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction.

A person against whom expenses are or may be recoverable under this section may enter into an agreement with the road authority for payment to it in respect of heavy traffic, and on making the payment as agreed the person is not to be subject to any proceedings under this section.

For the purposes of this section the Minister is to be taken to be the road authority that has functions in relation to the repair of a Government road, and the Minister may bring an action for recovery of expenses under this section accordingly and any money recovered is to be credited to the Consolidated Account.

Proceedings for the recovery of expenses under this section cannot be commenced —

in the case where the damage is the consequence of a particular building contract or work extending over a long period, if 6 months have elapsed since the completion of the contract or work; and

in any other case, if 12 months have elapsed since the damage occurred.