AGTM Update – Motorway Capacity Analysis
Tender ID: 586196
Tender Details
Tender Description
Purpose:
This project will deliver national standardised motorway capacity performance curves for Australia and New Zealand urban freeways, together with a documented methodology for jurisdictions to generate their own local curves.
Outputs will also support improvements to motorway planning and strategic design guidance, including capacity-related sections of the Austroads Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) and Austroads Guide to Smart Motorways (AGSM).
Deliverables:
This project will produce the following two types of deliverables:
- Specialist Products – These are the core technical outputs of the project. They include the interim and final deliverables that embody the project's substantive findings, methodologies, data analysis, and guidance updates. These outputs directly inform Austroads' national guidance, capacity planning tools, and jurisdictional application.
- Management Products – These are project control and oversight documents. While they do not form part of the final technical outputs, they are essential to ensuring that the project is delivered on time, to scope, and to the required quality and risk management standards. These products support governance, reporting, stakeholder engagement, and data governance across the project lifecycle.
Where Specialist Products reference project governance elements (e.g. data validation approaches, stakeholder engagement strategies), these must be consistent with and draw from the Management Products, rather than duplicate them.
The following section provides a detailed narrative description of the key Specialist Products. Interested parties are requested to refer to the full Tender Brief from the tendering platform for detailed information on the composition, derivation, format, and quality requirements for each category of deliverables.
Specialist Products – Description and Intent
This project will produce a range of Specialist Products that form the core technical outputs of the NEG6527 work. These deliverables will enable Austroads and its members to better analyse and plan motorway capacity using robust, data-driven methods. The outputs must be developed with sufficient rigour, documentation, and usability to support national application, jurisdictional adaptation, and integration into Austroads guidance documents.
- Motorway Data and Analysis Plan
Early in the project, the supplier must prepare a technical plan describing how motorway data will be sourced, validated, and analysed. This includes the sampling strategy, data resolution and coverage, pre-processing and cleaning methods, assumptions, limitations, and the overall analytical framework for developing performance curves.
The plan must explicitly address the use of data sourced from jurisdictional motorway control systems (e.g. managed motorway control systems, traffic signal control systems, loop detector feeds), and where necessary, supplementary datasets such as Bluetooth/Wi-Fi travel time data, toll transaction data, automatic traffic counters, or third-party probe data.
The plan must also identify the key segment-level variables expected to influence performance outcomes, such as ramp density, number of lanes, lane configuration, traffic composition, geometry, and control strategies; and explain how these will be sourced or derived from available datasets. It must describe their intended role in typology development and in shaping curve derivation logic, including stratification (i.e. across different segment types and variables).
The plan must include a clear strategy for managing data availability risks, validation of alternative data sources, and gap management where complete datasets are not available. Any material changes to the proposed treatment of segment variables must be discussed with and agreed by the Project Control Group.
This is a foundational product, distinct from the project-level Data Management Plan.
- Segment Typology and Performance Curves
The project must define a national motorway segment typology based on data-driven analysis. Segment types may include basic, merge, diverge, lane additions/drops, and weaving sections. This typology underpins the development of national motorway performance curves, including Cumulative Distribution Functions (CDFs), Flow Breakdown Risk (FBR) curves, Speed–Flow curves, and Productivity curves. These curves must be supported by statistical analysis, clear assumptions, confidence intervals or variability measures, and visual presentation.
Curves must be stratified across the defined segment typologies and key variables, and include comparisons between strata to highlight performance variability. Commentary must be provided on the sensitivity of results to variable selection, modelling assumptions, and data availability.
The segment typology and associated motorway performance curves must be underpinned by key segment-level variables. These may include ramp density, number of lanes, lane configuration, traffic composition (e.g. percentage of heavy vehicles), control strategies (e.g. ramp metering), geometry, and other physical or operational factors influencing capacity. As a starting point, the analysis should prioritise number of lanes, commercial vehicle percentage (CV%), segment type, and ramp density, with other variables considered where data quality and coverage support their inclusion.
The Motorway Data and Analysis Plan must identify which variables will be used, how they will be sourced or derived, and how they inform typology classification and performance curve development. These variables must also be reflected in data summaries, typology rationale, and performance curve stratification and sensitivity commentary.
The extent of curve stratification and typology differentiation must be guided by data availability, representativeness across jurisdictions, and the statistical sufficiency of observed flow breakdown events. While understanding the influence of a wide range of segment-level variables is desirable, stratification should focus on those with strong data coverage and practical relevance. The Project Control Group will play a key role in reviewing proposed stratification levels to ensure they are evidence-based, methodologically sound, and suitable for planning and guidance use.
- Local Curve Development Guide
To support jurisdictional implementation, the project must produce a practical methodology that guides agencies in developing their own local curves. This guide must include step-by-step instructions, data requirements, and recommendations for validation, adaptation, and interpretation of locally derived curves.
The guide must be written to a level that allows jurisdictions to replicate the core curve methodology using their own data, without supplier assistance.
- Guide Update Recommendations (AGTM/AGSM)
The project must identify and document proposed updates to the Austroads Guide to Traffic Management (AGTM) and Guide to Smart Motorways (AGSM), where relevant. These should be delivered as draft chapters or narrative sections that clearly explain the rationale, implications for design and modelling practice, and integration points with existing guidance.
- Final Report and Webinar
The Final Consolidated Technical Report will present all findings in a structured, publication-ready document. It must be clearly written, logically structured, proofread, and formatted according to Austroads Instructions to Authors, and include visuals such as typology diagrams, curve plots, data tables, and summary figures. It must incorporate reviewer comments and include a response matrix outlining how feedback has been addressed. It is to be accompanied by all motorway data collected for the analysis, licensed for Austroads member use.
A Traceability Matrix must be included as an appendix to demonstrate where each project requirement has been addressed. Following report submission, the supplier must deliver a national webinar summarising key findings and responding to audience questions. The webinar must be supported by a PowerPoint slide pack and practice session.
Location
New South Wales : Central West : Far North Coast : Far West : Hunter : Illawarra : Mid North Coast : Murray : New England : Orana : Riverina : Southern Highlands : Sydney
Queensland : Cairns & Far North Queensland : Gladstone : Mackay Whitsunday Region : Mount Isa & North West Region : Rockhampton : South East Queensland : South West & Darling Downs : The Central West : Townsville : Wide Bay Burnett
Victoria : Barwon South West : Gippsland : Grampians : Hume : Loddon Mallee : Melbourne
South Australia : Adelaide : Eyre & Western : Far North : Fleurieu & Kangaroo Island : Limestone Coast : Murray & Mallee : York & Mid North
Northern Territory : Barkly : Big Rivers : Central Australia : East Arnhem : Greater Darwin : Top End
Australian Capital Territory
Tasmania
New Zealand : Auckland : Bay of Plenty : Canterbury : Chatham Islands : Gisborne : Hawke's Bay : Kermadec : Manawatu-Wanganui : Marlborough : Nelson : Northland : Otago : Southland : Subantartic : Taranaki : Tasman-Nelson : Three Kings : Waikato : Wellington : West Coast
