Assessing Impacts of Proposed Increased Axle Loads for Low Emission Heavy Vehicles on Pavements and Surfacings

Purpose: To inform road asset owners the likely treatments required to manage increased damage to pavement and surfacings that would result from increases to axle mass limits and to quantify the technical, financial and carbon emissions impacts of those required treatments. Scope: The project will identify the types of pavement and surfacings which will be particularly vulnerable to the proposed increase in axle mass limits for low emission heavy vehicles, and identify the likely treatments required to mitigate or repair damage to those pavements and surfacings. Guidance and typical examples quantifying the increase in treatment intervention, increased cost and increased emissions will be provided. The project will focus on investigating in more detail the single steer axle mass limit increases considered under Austroads project NEF6392 Future Freight Vehicles and Buses Implications for Road Managers and document and expand on the supplementary qualitative assessment undertaken by NTRO under that project. It is noted that twin steer axle truck configurations represent only a small percentage of the freight industry fleet, and have not been the subject of proposed axle mass limit increases. The scope of the project includes the following: Conducting a review and consider available information from Austroads project NEF6392 Future Freight Vehicles and Buses Implications for Road Managers. Considering any early findings from Austroads project APT6117 Assessing Impacts of Heavy Vehicle Increased Axle Loads on Pavements. Undertake a quantitative analysis of vertical and horizontal forces for 5 or more typical pavements agreed in consultation with the stakeholders to analysis the effect of the proposed increased axle mass limits for the following common vehicle types: Bus Rigid truck Prime mover. The project does not include laboratory, accelerated pavement or field testing. This project will produce the following final deliverables: Research report Webinar Project data with populated metadata spreadsheet. Also included as part of this tender are the following documents: Master Services Agreement outlining our Terms and Conditions. All submissions that are research project based must adhere to the Austroads style requirements and the Australian Government Style Manual Summary of Austroads Publication Requirements for Research Reports: Consultants engaged to deliver research reports for Austroads are required to use a standard report template designed to ensure clarity, consistency, and accessibility across all published outputs. While the full template will be provided upon contract commencement, the following outlines the key requirements tenderers should be aware of: General Formatting and Style Reports must follow the Australian Government Style Manual, particularly in relation to: Inclusive and accessible language Grammar, punctuation, and capitalisation (e.g. sentence case for most headings) Referencing and attribution Use pre-defined Austroads styles for all headings, body text, tables, figures, and captions. Manual formatting (e.g. changing fonts or colours directly) is not permitted. The Table of Contents must be auto-generated and kept updated. The report should be: Logically structured: Each section must contribute to the report's purpose. Consistent: No conflicting information or contradictions. Thorough: All aspects of the agreed scope must be fully addressed and justified. Content Development Guidelines The Summary and Section 1 (Introduction) are mandatory for all reports. Reports must include appropriate referencing for external sources, data, and studies. Any copyrighted material used must have documented permission and be properly acknowledged. A qualified editor must review the report before submission to ensure correct grammar, spelling, and readability. Figures and Tables All figures and tables must: Be sequentially numbered Include a clear caption inserted using the Microsoft Word Insert Caption tool Images and diagrams must be clear, relevant, and referred to in the text. Technical Details Specific instructions are included for each section within the template (e.g. expected content, structure, and formatting). Reports must avoid "style corruption" often caused by copying and pasting formatted text—authors must verify styles remain consistent with Austroads' format. Reports should be reviewed to ensure there is no duplication, ambiguity, or omission of scope elements. All submissions are to be submitted as a PDF at a maximum size of 10MB. All submissions are to include a completed Tender Proposal Coversheet. The naming convention for submissions is: [your Company name] – [Project No.] – [any internal reference numbers].