Roads and Maritime Services

Roads and Maritime Services
Agency overview
Formed 1 November 2011 (2011-11-01)
Preceding agencies
Type Statutory authority
Jurisdiction New South Wales
Headquarters Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Employees 6,900
Minister responsible
Agency executive
  • Peter Duncan, Chief Executive Officer
Parent department Transport for New South Wales
Website www.rms.nsw.gov.au

Roads and Maritime Services (also known as Roads & Maritime Services) is an agency of the New South Wales Government responsible for building and maintaining road infrastructure and managing the day-to-day compliance and safety for roads and waterways.[1]

The Agency was created on 1 November 2011 from a merger of the Roads & Traffic Authority and NSW Maritime. Planning responsibilities were transferred to Transport for New South Wales, which was created on the same day.

Functions

Roads and Maritime Services manages 4,787 bridges and 17,623 km (10,950 mi) of state roads and highways, including 3,105 km (1,929 mi) of national highways, and employs 6,900 staff in more than 180 offices throughout NSW, including 129 Motor Registries Offices.

Vehicle registration

Motor Registry Office with the former RTA branding in Wagga Wagga

Roads and Maritime Services is responsible for the registration of vehicles (including the issuing of registration plates) and the issuing of Drivers licences in New South Wales, including testing and administering of licences. Additionally, RMS produces photo cards for identification of non-drivers and issues photographic firearms licences for the New South Wales Police Firearms Registry, security licences also for the New South Wales Police, Commercial Agents & Private Inquiry Agents cards and Mobility Parking Permits.

Major incident response

Traffic Emergency Patrol

Within NSW, the Transport Management Centre is responsible for managing special events and unplanned incidents and disseminating information to motorists.[2] It is the central point for identifying and directing the response to incidents such as crashes, breakdowns and spills. It passes on information to the public through the media, the RMS call centre and variable message signs along routes.[3]

In 1999 the NSW Transport Management Centre (TMC) established Traffic Commander and Traffic Emergency Patrol (TEP) services throughout the Greater Urban Area of Sydney to provide 24-hour 365-day-a-year coverage to "Manage the traffic arrangements around an incident scene and return the road to normal operating conditions with the utmost urgency."[4]

Traffic Commanders take command of traffic management arrangements at an incident (such as a motor vehicle collision) and liaise with other response agencies such as the Police, and assist in clearing the road and minimising the effects and disruption to traffic.[5] Traffic Commanders exercise command and control of RMS resources at the outer perimeter with regard to traffic management such as the coordination of Traffic Emergency Patrols.[6] Traffic Emergency Patrols vans patrol major road routes and respond to unplanned incidents with the aim of returning the road to normal operating conditions as soon as possible.[4] Both Traffic Commanders and TEP units carry a wide array of traffic management devices such as traffic cones, barrier boards and road signage.[7] Both also are permitted to use and display red and blue emergency lighting and are designated as 'emergency vehicles'.[8]

'Role of the TMC' The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between various Government agencies in NSW states that the TMC has the following responsibilities:[9]

The TMC will:

Traffic Emergency Patrol assisting with a road closure during a serious motor vehicle collision.

Car ferry services

Wisemans Ferry

As part of its duty to provide major road infrastructure, RMS is responsible for the provision of several car ferries. These ferries are all toll-free, and include:[10][11]

Lighthouses

Tacking Point Lighthouse

RMS is responsible for light operation in the following 13 lighthouses:[12]

Key building projects

Key road building projects that Roads and Maritime Services are undertaking either directly, through contractors or via public/private partnerships, include:

See also

References

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/5/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.