FRA CLARIFIES ITS STAND ON ENFORCEMENT OF VEHICLE LOAD LIMITS

20 August 2018

The enforcement of vehicle load limits is no longer a function of the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) and is now the responsibility of Land Transport Authority (LTA).

This was confirmed by the FRA Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Moore.

“The FRA, however, is a key stakeholder in advising the LTA as to what the appropriate vehicle weight limit on a particular road or bridge should be.”

He said overloading is a major concern on Fiji roads as it causes rapid deterioration of the road network and can potentially reduce the service life from 25 years to less than 10 years.

“Despite designing and constructing roads in Fiji to Australia and New Zealand standards, vehicles travelling on Fiji roads with axle loads in excess of what is allowed is primarily the reason our roads do not last its design life of 25 years.”

Mr Moore said measures are being put in place to control the granting of exemption permits for regular vehicle movements.

“The FRA will only grant exemption permits for one-off vehicle movements of a non-divisible load (eg. transportation of a crane from Suva to Nadi) and for selected limited routes to transport heavy shipping containers to and from ports.”

Meanwhile, the Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge on Queens Road outside Suva is undergoing weight and lane restrictions due to maintenance works as follows:

20Tonne- daytime from 5.00am to 8.00pm daily and;

32Tonne- single lane only during night time from 8.00pm to 5.00am daily

During this time, traffic will be restricted to single lane (controlled by traffic signals) during the night and early morning to allow heavy vehicles to cross.

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