Vehicle Crossing Permit in Melbourne
Are you crossing from a public road to enter your site – if so, you should check with the local council if a Vehicle Crossing Permit is required.
Why do they have a permit system?
The council are endeavouring to protect the public and minimise damage to the roadway. This includes footpaths, kerbs and nature strips. They want to ensure that the public are kept safe and the owner pays for all and any repair necessitated by construction traffic.
Why does the Owner Pay
Over the course of the construction period many different delivery companies, suppliers, contractors, consultants and who knows who, will access the site by vehicle. They will collectively cause wear and tear and a few of them with low undercarriages may well cause damage. Who did the damage and when it happened, will always be a mystery and as ever the council will hold the one constant person responsible – the owner or client. They should levy a charge for what is fair to repair the damage.
How do you know what is fair?
You should only be responsible for damage that was actually caused, this is called ‘real loss’.
Before works commence you should undertake a survey or record of condition of the roadway and crossovers.
How do you do with this?
First of all, inspect the roadway to assess condition. Dependant on the council’s approachability and interaction you can inspect the area jointly with them or do it solely making careful note of the date and conditions found. You can include this report as part of your permit application and on completion of the works use this document to assess real damage and the following loss. Invariably, councils only allow registered and approved contractors to work on the highway and these contractors will eventually raise an invoice that you are expected to pay.
What do Fitzpatrick do?
We always carry out our own survey and record conditions before we commence works. We will pass our report to you and you can include this as part of your permit application or keep it until the appropriate time to release as a record. We shall carry out a further condition report on completion of our works so that the roadway condition can be monitored and the report updated.
Give us a call
We can discuss taking over this permit application process and compile your road condition report before any works are commenced.
