A quarry traffic management plan in Western Australia is not the roadworks document you get from Main Roads. It is the principal mining hazard management plan for roads and other areas where mobile plant operate, required under the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 and now measured against the Code of practice: Road and traffic management at Western Australian mines, published on 4 August 2026.
That distinction causes real confusion. Search for a traffic management plan in WA and you will find AS 1742.3 templates for working on public roads, complete with cones, taper lengths and traffic controllers. None of it applies inside your lease. This article covers the plan you actually need.
Why the plan is a PMHMP, not a standalone document
Regulations 627 to 629 require the mine operator to identify every principal mining hazard and prepare a management plan for each. “Roads or other areas where mobile plant operate” is one of the listed principal mining hazards. If mobile plant moves at your quarry, and it does, you have that hazard and you need that plan.
The practical consequence is structural. Your traffic management plan needs to read like a hazard management plan: it names the hazard, describes how the risk was assessed, specifies controls with performance standards, assigns accountability and sets review triggers. A plan that is just a site map with speed limits on it will not survive an audit, no matter how accurate the map is.
If you have not built a PMHMP before, read writing a principal mining hazard management plan for a quarry alongside this article.
What to include in a quarry traffic management plan
1. A current map of the traffic network
Not a survey plan. A working map showing haul routes, light vehicle routes, the site entry and weighbridge, customer truck routes, pedestrian areas and crossings, parking, laydown, the workshop apron, fuel and magazine access, and every intersection.
The most common failure here is age. Quarry faces advance, ramps move, stockpiles get relocated and a haul route that made sense in March is a dead end by August. If your map is more than a few weeks behind the pit, the plan describes a site that does not exist.
2. Vehicle and plant inventory with interaction pairs
List what actually operates on site, including contractor and customer vehicles. Then work through which pairs can meet: haul truck to light vehicle, loader to customer truck, excavator to service vehicle, any plant to pedestrian. Each pair is a separate interaction with its own controls.
Quarries have an interaction that most mines do not: customer trucks driven by people who do not work for you, who visit occasionally, and who are being paid by the load. That pairing deserves its own section.
3. Segregation and interaction rules
State the hierarchy plainly: eliminate the interaction where you can, separate in space or time where you cannot, and only then rely on procedure and behaviour. Cover right of way, positive communication protocols, park-up positions, exclusion zones around loading, and the rule for approaching operating plant.
Detail is in segregating vehicles, mobile plant and people at a quarry.
4. Road design and maintenance standards
Specify the standard your roads are built and maintained to: running width relative to the largest vehicle, maximum grade, crossfall and drainage, sight distance at intersections, windrow height and profile, and surface condition. Then specify how often roads are inspected and by whom, and what triggers a repair.
See quarry haul road and access road design and, for the geometry detail, mine road intersection design.
5. Speed, signage and delineation
Record the speed limits and the reasoning behind them. A limit chosen because it was on the last site is not a control, it is a number. Cover signage standards, delineation, lighting where work runs after dark, and how signs are maintained. See speed limits, signage and delineation at a quarry.
6. Competency, induction and supervision
Who is authorised to operate what, how contractors and visitors are inducted into the traffic rules, and how supervisors verify compliance. Customer truck drivers need an induction proportionate to their exposure, which for a regular carter is more than a laminated card at the gate.
7. Triggers, escalation and emergency response
Conditions change. Heavy rain, dust, low light, a windrow knocked out by a truck, a ramp under repair. Set out what triggers a change in operating rules and who makes the call. A trigger action response plan is the cleanest way to do this, and the structure transfers directly: see building a TARP for mine roads.
8. Monitoring, audit and review
Performance standards with a way of measuring them. How you monitor compliance, how often the plan is audited, and what triggers a review outside the schedule. A pit layout change, a new plant type, an incident or a near miss should all trigger review.
What auditors and inspectors look for
- Does the plan match the site today? The single fastest test. An inspector walks the pit with your map.
- Are controls specific enough to verify? “Maintain safe separation” is not verifiable. “Light vehicles do not enter the loading area while the excavator is tramming, confirmed by radio call on channel 2” is.
- Is there evidence the controls operate? Road inspection records, defect close-outs, induction registers, radio logs.
- Were workers involved? A PMHMP developed without input from the people who drive the roads is a documented assumption, not a risk assessment.
- Does it link to the MSMS? The plan should sit inside your mine safety management system, not beside it.
The maintenance problem, and how to solve it
Most quarries can write a good traffic management plan. Very few can keep one current, because the document lives in a folder and the site changes every week.
The way out is to stop treating the map as an attachment. If your road network, exclusion zones, road defects and inspection records live on a shared live map, the plan updates when the site updates, and the supervisor who moved the haul route is the one who moved it on the map. Everyone from the quarry manager to a customer truck driver sees the same current picture, and the record of what changed and when writes itself.
That is what HazView does. To see it against your own pit, book a demo.
Related guides
- Quarry Safety in Western Australia: A Compliance Guide for Quarry Managers
- Keeping Vehicles, Mobile Plant and People Apart at a Quarry
- Quarry Haul Road and Access Road Design: WA Standards Explained
- Speed Limits, Signage and Delineation at a Quarry
- All WA Quarries & Mines guides
Frequently asked questions
Does a small quarry need a traffic management plan?
Yes, if mobile plant operates on site. Roads and other areas where mobile plant operate is a listed principal mining hazard, and a management plan is required for each identified principal mining hazard. The plan should be proportionate to the size and complexity of the operation, but it must exist.
Is a quarry traffic management plan the same as a Main Roads TMP?
No. Main Roads traffic management plans built on AS 1742.3 govern work on public roads. A quarry traffic management plan governs vehicle and pedestrian interaction inside the mine under the WHS (Mines) Regulations 2022. If your operation also works on the public road at the site entrance, you may need both.
Who should write the plan?
The mine operator is responsible. In practice the quarry manager or SSE leads it, with input from supervisors, operators and any contractor who runs plant on site. Worker consultation is not optional under WHS law.
How often should the plan be reviewed?
On a set cycle and on trigger. Set a scheduled review at least annually, and trigger an out-of-cycle review whenever the road layout changes materially, a new class of plant arrives, or a traffic-related incident or significant near miss occurs.
Does the plan cover customer trucks?
Yes. Anyone driving on site is inside the hazard, whether they work for you or not. Carters, contractors and visitors need to be covered by the routes, rules and induction described in the plan.