Queensland-made muscle vehicles make light work of heavy vehicles

Unique new Heavy Vehicle Response Units, or HVRUs, will soon be on our roads. Designed and manufactured by Queensland companies, the HRVUs can move heavy trucks and semi-trailers from south east Queensland roads quickly and safely. The HVRUs are part of the Queensland Government's congestion management initiatives and will be added to the suite of traffic incident response services.

The HVRUs go beyond conventional towing methods with special features to quickly move or remove an immobilised, rolled or damaged heavy vehicle, once emergency services have deemed the area to be safe.

Interesting features

The HVRUs have many features to do their job, including:

  • five hydraulically-controlled winches and associated anchor points to assist in the rolling and movement of heavy vehicles
  • a hydraulic blade to assist with clearing road debris
  • a hydraulic safety barrier to reduce the risk of operator injury
  • dedicated stowage space for ancillary tools and equipment
  • traffic warning signs and lights, fire extinguishers and remote cameras at each end of the vehicle.

Benefits of HVRUs

  • A Queensland world-first design, built in Queensland by Queensland-based companies.
  • Powerful enough to lift heavy trucks and semi-trailers.
  • Quick clearance solutions by responding immediately to incident scenes in south east Queensland, slashing the time to move heavy vehicles to an average target time of 45 minutes.

Statistics

25% of traffic delays are caused by traffic crashes and vehicle breakdowns.

In the past 12 months there have been 176 major incidents involving heavy vehicles in the Brisbane metropolitan area, including 32 truck rollovers.

It can take 3 or more hours to move crashed heavy vehicles and their loads using current industry methods.

The HVRUs are expected on the road by the end of September 2009, once all operators are trained in their use.

Between 4 am and 6 pm weekdays, the HVRUs will respond immediately to incidents on:

  • Bruce Highway to Caloundra
  • Pacific Motorway to Nerang
  • ranges on the Cunningham and Warrego highways.

Outside these hours, the HVRUs will be on call to respond to incidents.

Last updated: 07 September 2009