Servicing
In general the specific servicing requirements for the number of service bays for educational facilities are not specified in the existing Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme.
However provision for the swept path of a 12.5m rigid truck (as the design vehicle, with a minimum turn radius of 12.5m, with additional clearance to kerbs) should be made with sufficient space for the vehicle to stand without obstructing other vehicles and to load and unload.
Provision on new paths should also continue to be made for occasional ambulance and fire tender access. This requires a width of at least 3m and a vertical clearance of 4m.
Events
The University currently hosts a range of annual events. The larger events occur on weekends, when public transport frequency is lower, and have the potential to require well over the current parking stock of approximately 2,000 spaces (including all overflow spaces).
The USC Open Day, for example, takes place on a Sunday and attracts over 2,000 visitors, and World Environment Day, also held on a Sunday, attracts over 3,000 visitors.
Occasional campus visitors are unlikely to be able to cycle or walk to the events; however the provision of overflow parking to accommodate these occasional high demands is not considered practical.
Several strategies are recommended. Existing Campus parking should be used as far as possible, however advanced variable message signage will be required to indicate to others when further parking is not available on Campus, directing them to surrounding park and ride facilities in Buderim, Kawana and Caloundra. As a parallel strategy the University could consider public consultation to encourage the use of park and ride areas, noting that Council is in the process of providing and improving park and ride facilities at Kawana, Maroochydore and Caloundra.
From these areas free shuttle bus services could be available to bring attendees to site. Variable message signage system signage would also be required within Campus and the parking strategies above outline potential locations for signs.
The third strategy simply requires attendees to register their mobile phone numbers on-line for the events, with SMS message updates sent as the campus parking fills to capacity, again directing drivers to Buderim, Kawana or Caloundra.
Construction traffic management
The scope of building work foreshadowed in the 2012 Campus Master Plan is extensive, with well over 100,000m2 of GFA required to 2016, provided over some fifteen identified sites and effectively doubling current GFA capacity. Ongoing building work has the potential to have a major impact on the amenity of the Campus unless positively managed.
Even a medium sized low rise public building, with moderate earthworks, over a two year construction program, can generate on average twenty heavy vehicle trips a day, in addition to twenty to thirty contractor vehicle movements a day, at peak construction. This impact can be reduced with the introduction of access and signage protocols.
Access for contractors does not need to necessarily occur through the main entrance point. As a general strategy construction traffic should be kept off the main access road if possible, and directed along the access road to the eastern structured car parking station.
From here a temporary haul road could be established to take vehicles south to a site office and vehicle compound to service the majority of construction work at the southern end of the Campus. The road would need to accommodate the swept path of a 19m semi-trailer.