Feasibility design audit
Route options and concept layouts, before the geometry is committed. Footnoted in the policy as not required on Main Roads projects — developers and councils still ask for it.
from $2,400+ GST · $2,640 inc
Councils · developers · contractors
Road safety audits for projects anywhere in Western Australia
Four stages exist, and most projects do not need all four. Check which ones yours does before you write the scope.
Every team led by an IPWEA/Main Roads Accredited Senior Road Safety Auditor, RSA0000 · Burswood, working across WA
Two accredited people, minimum — that is the policy, not our upsell
“All road safety audit teams must comprise a minimum of two members. The audit team shall be made up of an IPWEA/Main Roads Accredited Senior Road Safety Auditor and a minimum of one IPWEA/Main Roads Accredited Road Safety Auditor team member.”
Main Roads WA, Policy and Guidelines for Road Safety Audit (D15#159750, Rev 8, 10/12/2025), section 5
Our rates
What each stage costs
Fixed fees, ex GST, with the GST-inclusive figure beside each one. A fee covers the site inspection, the team, the report against the audit brief, and the response meeting with your designer.
Preliminary design audit
Once the alignment, intersection form and cross-section are set. The cheapest point at which a finding can still change the layout rather than the line marking.
from $3,200+ GST · $3,520 inc
Detailed design audit
Construction drawings, signs and lines, drainage, lighting, clear zones and the traffic signal or roundabout detail. The stage almost every project needs.
from $3,900+ GST · $4,290 inc
Pre/post-opening audit
On site, in the dark as well as in daylight, when the works are substantially complete and ideally before the road opens to the public.
from $4,600+ GST · $5,060 inc
Booked together
The same team carries the Stage 3 findings to site, so nothing is re-argued from scratch. This is the combination most land-use developments and Black Spot projects need.
$8,200+ GST · $9,020 inc · $300 less than separately
Road safety inspection
A road already open and in service, inspected and reported on the IPWEA Road Safety Portal. This is what a Black Spot submission is usually built from. Not an audit.
from $2,700+ GST · $2,970 inc
These are our rates and nobody else’s
We have not found an Australian road safety auditor who publishes a fee, so there is no market rate to hold us against — compare bidders on scope, on team, and on who is actually leading the audit rather than signing it. Regional work adds travel and accommodation at cost, agreed in writing before we leave Burswood; nothing is charged as a percentage of your project.
Free, and it takes ten seconds
Which stages does your project need?
Size of the development
No previous audit? Leave it blank. Clock checked against Mon, 2 Mar 2026.
Stages 2, 3 and 4
A land-use development at $1 million to under $10 million: preliminary design, detailed design and pre/post-opening.
- Stage 1Feasibility
- Stage 2Preliminary
- Stage 3Detailed
- Stage 4Pre/post-opening
Who you must engage
A team of at least two accredited people, led by a Senior Road Safety Auditor.
Is your last audit still current?
No previous audit entered, so there is nothing on the three-year clock.
These are a minimum
Sections 6.2 and 6.3 set their stages as a minimum, so your Main Roads project manager can ask for more. We price what is added at the same stage rate, never as a variation.
$11,700
+ GST · $12,870.00 inc
Stages and value bands from Main Roads WA, Policy and Guidelines for Road Safety Audit, sections 4.2, 5, 6.1–6.3, 6.4.2 and 6.7. The fee is ours.
How it runs
How an audit runs, and who pays for it
Five working days from brief to draft report on a standard detailed-design audit; ten if the project is regional and the site inspection needs a night visit.
If it is a Black Spot project, the audit is not your budget’s problem
Councils keep leaving the audit out of the submission because the audit fee sits in a different line of their own budget. It does not have to.
“The State Black Spot Program and the Australian Government Black Spot Program will cover the cost of Stage 3 and 4 audits. The estimated cost of these audits is to be included in the total project cost.”
Main Roads WA, State Black Spot Program Development and Management Guidelines (Issue Date April 2010, amended December 2024), section 6.1.2
Put our fixed fee in the project estimate as a line item, not in your engineering overhead, and send us the draft submission — we will give you the number to paste in, in writing, today. If you would rather do that without engaging us at all, take the Stage 3 and 4 figures off the rates above and use them.
01
You send the drawings
Design plans, the design report if there is one, speed environment and traffic volumes. We tell you inside a day which stages the policy asks for and what we would charge, as a fixed fee.
02
We agree the audit brief
Scope, boundaries, what is in and what is deliberately out. An audit against a vague brief produces findings nobody can close out.
03
Two auditors, on site
Senior auditor plus at least one accredited team member, day and night where the project warrants it. We drive the approach the way a driver unfamiliar with it would.
04
Findings, ranked, then a response meeting
Each finding with its risk rating and the reasoning behind it. We sit down with your designer and the client so the responses get written once.
Ask any bidder when they last led one
Accreditation is not a certificate you hang on a wall and keep. IPWEA WA and Main Roads WA agree that “from 30 June 2006, Senior Road Safety Auditors must team lead at least TWO road safety audits over TWO years to maintain accreditation as a Senior Road Safety Auditor.” It is a fair question to put to us and to everyone else quoting you.
IPWEA WA Road Safety Audit, Becoming a Road Safety Auditor
Check the register before you engage anyone
“Most Local Government Authorities will only accept audits undertaken by an accredited IPWEA WA/MRWA Senior Road Safety Auditor.” The accredited-auditor list itself sits behind a login, so ask for the accreditation number and have your LGA confirm it — ours is RSA0000.
IPWEA WA Road Safety Audit, Accredited Auditors
What clients say
Three recent jobs, in their words
“We had budgeted a Stage 2 we did not need and left out the Stage 4 we did. Sightline sorted that out on the phone before we had engaged anyone, then audited the detailed design and came back at night for the opening. The findings register was the first one our designer did not argue with.”
Design managerCivil contractor, Malaga
“Ours was a 38-lot subdivision off a State road and the audit requirement landed on us late. They audited the detailed design and the pre-opening together, which saved a mobilisation and $300, and they wrote the covering note the City wanted for the subdivision clearance.”
Project managerLand developer, Baldivis
“They told us our submission could carry the audit fee in the project cost rather than in our engineering budget, and quoted the guideline that says so. That one sentence is the reason the audit happened at all this year.”
Manager, technical servicesRegional local government, Wheatbelt
Where we work
The whole State, not just the metro
Based in Burswood, audited from Kununurra to Esperance. Regional travel and accommodation at cost, agreed in writing before we leave — and where we can, we pair two regional jobs into one trip and split it.
Perth and Peel
Burswood base. No travel charge inside the metropolitan region or Mandurah — Joondalup, Wanneroo, Swan, Kalamunda, Armadale, Rockingham, Kwinana, Fremantle, Cockburn, Serpentine-Jarrahdale.
South West and Great Southern
Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River, Collie, Manjimup, Albany, Denmark, Katanning. Most jobs run as a single two-day trip including the night inspection.
Wheatbelt, Goldfields and Esperance
Northam, York, Merredin, Narrogin, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Esperance. Black Spot season is our busiest run out here — book early and we will pair your job with a neighbour’s.
Mid West, Pilbara and Kimberley
Geraldton, Carnarvon, Karratha, Port Hedland, Newman, Broome, Kununurra. Flown, with the site inspection and the response meeting in the same visit.
Straight answers
Questions we get every week
Does my project actually need a road safety audit?
If it is on a State managed road, section 1 of the policy is unambiguous: “Road Safety Audits shall be conducted on all projects that involve a permanent change to the road layout on State managed roads in accordance with the requirements of this policy.” Section 4.1 adds that the guideline “applies to all State roads in Western Australia and all Federal and State funded Blackspot projects on public roads.”
If it is a land-use development, section 6.7 applies where the development intersects the State road network. If it touches no State road at all, this policy does not reach it — your local government may still want an audit, and many do.
Which stages, and who decides?
Main Roads decides, by estimated project value, in sections 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3. Those are prose sections rather than a table, and 6.2 and 6.3 set their stages “as a minimum” — the project manager can ask for more. Under $100,000 there is an exception list in 6.7 for land-use developments, and section 6.4.2 puts a sub-$100,000 Black Spot project at Stage 3.
The checker above walks the same sections. It will not interpolate between the published bands, because there is nothing published between them to interpolate.
Who is allowed to do the audit?
Not one person. Section 5: “All road safety audit teams must comprise a minimum of two members. The audit team shall be made up of an IPWEA/Main Roads Accredited Senior Road Safety Auditor and a minimum of one IPWEA/Main Roads Accredited Road Safety Auditor team member.”
Nobody on the audit team can have been involved in designing the thing they are auditing. The accredited-auditor list requires a login, so ask for the accreditation number and have your LGA or your Main Roads project manager confirm it.
What is the difference between an audit and a road safety inspection?
An audit examines a project — a design, or newly built works — at a defined stage, against the audit brief, by a team independent of the designer. A road safety inspection examines a length of road already open and in service, and is what most Black Spot submissions are built from. Section 5.6.3 of the Black Spot guidelines: “Road Safety Inspection reports must be submitted on the IPWEA Road Safety Portal and be less than 3 years old.”
If what you actually need is the inspection, say so and we will quote the inspection. It is $2,700 + GST, not $3,900.
How long does an audit take?
Five working days from an agreed brief to a draft report for a metropolitan detailed-design audit, ten for a regional project or one needing a night inspection. The response meeting is usually a week later, once your designer has drafted responses to each finding. Stage 4 has to be scheduled around practical completion, so tell us your opening date early — that is the one date we cannot move.
Who pays for the audit on a Black Spot project?
The program does, if you put it in the project cost. Section 6.1.2 of the State Black Spot Program Development and Management Guidelines: “The State Black Spot Program and the Australian Government Black Spot Program will cover the cost of Stage 3 and 4 audits. The estimated cost of these audits is to be included in the total project cost.” Include the fee as a line item in the estimate you submit, not as a cost to your own engineering budget.
How long does an audit stay current?
Three years, and it is not only about age. Section 4.2: “All Road Safety Audits must be repeated if the project design materially changes, or if there are many minor changes which together could impact on road user safety, or if the previous road safety audit for the relevant stage is more than 3 years old. In the event that a project does not begin the next stage in its development within 3 years of the completion of the previous audit, the project must be re-audited.”
Put your last audit’s date into the checker and it will give you the date it passes three years. If a project has sat still and the design has not changed, that date is the one worth diarising.
What do you need from us to quote?
Project type, estimated value, the drawings at whatever stage they are, the speed environment, and the opening date if there is one. We quote a fixed fee against a written audit brief. We do not charge a percentage of project value, and we do not price the report separately from the inspection.
Send it through
Send the project, get the stages and a fixed fee
Your answers from the checker are copied across. We reply inside one business day with the stages the policy asks for and a fixed fee against a written brief — or with the sentence that says you do not need us.
Received
Thanks, that is everything we need
This is a demonstration build, so nothing was sent and nobody will ring. On the real site this lands in the audit team’s inbox with the drawings attached.
Hours
Monday to Friday, 7am to 5pm. Night inspections and pre-opening site visits by arrangement, including weekends when the opening date demands it.
What happens next
We confirm the stages against the policy, send a fixed fee and a draft audit brief, and hold a team for the week you need. No charge for the stage advice, whether or not you engage us.