The new Commercial Vehicle Safety Centre (CVSC) at Ohakea is expected to improve travel efficiencies for heavy vehicle operators, once it’s built.
Motorists travelling on State Highway 1 and 3 between Bulls and Sanson, will be starting to see the new Ohakea CVSC building going up.
A CVSC, formerly known as a weigh station, monitors heavy vehicles travelling past and provides data on operator and truck behaviour such as heavy vehicle weight, load status, and driver fatigue.
The Ohakea CVSC is situated on Pukenui Road, outside RNZAF Base Ohakea and near the newly constructed roundabout. SH1/3 is a high-volume freight route and at this new location, heavy vehicles will be able to use the roundabout and pull into the CVSC from both directions.
The Ohakea CVSC site is on track for completion in early 2025. It is one of 12 planned as part of the national Commercial Vehicle Safety Centre programme.
As part of this project, two sets of in-road scales (weigh-in-motion plates) will be installed in the northbound and southbound lanes between Bulls and Sanson. Automatic licence plate recognition cameras and two digital signage boards will also be installed on the side of the state highway. This installation work and a short section of asphalting will take place during the course of the year.
If a heavy vehicle is flagged during screening, the digital signage will instruct the driver to pull into the centre by showing the vehicle’s licence plate number.
Once at the CVSC, Police Commercial Vehicle Safety Team officers will ask the driver to drive over the weigh bridge. Further compliance checks may also take place, such as checking road user charges or logbooks, or completing a vehicle inspection.
Using this data, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) will be able to focus education and compliance work toward operators who aren’t compliant on our roads, making sure they’re paying their fair share of road maintenance costs, while keeping compliant operators moving.
NZTA Commercial Vehicle Safety Programme Manager Sean Bridge says this technology will help to streamline travel for operators, because those not flagged during screening won’t need to pull into the CVSC.
“The data we collect will give us really good insight into the behaviour of heavy vehicles on the network. Using this data, we'll be able to target our education and compliance work toward where safety issues are in the industry, protect our roads from damage, and bring down road maintenance costs."
NZ Police Commercial Vehicle Safety Team National Manager Acting Inspector Mike Flatt says having this facility will help NZTA and Police ensure drivers and vehicles passing through the region are safe and compliant.
“The team on site will be checking logbooks to make sure drivers aren't fatigued, as well as driver impairment checks before they get back on the road."
Find out more about this project and sign up to updates via our webpage:
Images below are of the new CVSC being built.
