The National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) has reached a significant milestone with the release of the National Network Map today, 20 December 2023.
In a national first, the heavy vehicle industry can see national road network information in one central location, with the map information that is currently held within each jurisdiction now available through the NHVR's National Network Map.
NHVR CEO Sal Petroccitto OAM said the transition of these maps onto the NHVR Portal has been in the works since December 2022, and is the result of strategic planning, digital product development and delivery, and rigorous testing.
"The NHVR's National Network Map supports improved heavy vehicle access efficiency and decision-making, by bringing together the state-based heavy vehicle networks and displaying them in one location.
"We are providing a single authoritative map to enable the heavy vehicle industry to plan journeys across state and territory borders for their entire fleet.
Mr Petroccitto said the NHVR has worked closely with state transport departments in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, and the Australian Capital Territory to transition their networks and achieve this important outcome.
"Significant work has been undertaken to get to this stage, and we are committed to making additional advancements during 2024, so we can work towards a safer and more efficient national road network.
"In delivering this map, the NHVR is delivering on our ongoing commitment to enhance and improve our services to all our customers."
NHVR Chief Data and Technology Officer Cameron Stone said the new technology enables industry to more precisely determine access-availability across vehicle combinations.
"Our new mapping solution provides the ability to search and view available networks for more than 1,000 heavy vehicle configurations, providing a level of detail that has never been available before through jurisdictional websites.
"In addition to having the ability to see maps for all gazetted networks across the country, it is possible to apply individual layers to the map so to identify points of interest, such as rest areas, height restrictions and road disruptions.
"The map provides real-time changes to road networks to ensure availability of the most accurate network access information.
"This has been a complex piece of work achieved by creating a unified database of road ownership, combining all vehicle access networks owned by different jurisdictions, and providing Network Management tools to oversee the establishment and maintenance of these networks."
Throughout December the NHVR has been educating industry, road managers and state police agencies on how to use the National Network Map through webinars and training sessions. Recordings of these webinars, as well as an instructional video, can be viewed on the NHVR website.
