11347 Traffic Engineering Report - Poultry Farm- Cooroy (RFI August 2013)

                                                             Traffic Engineering Report 11347
                                                           MCU: Agricultural Use Poultry Farm
                                                                               Milligan Farms
                                                                                  August 2013



4.       TRIP GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION

In order to analyse the impact of the development on the existing transport
infrastructure, it is necessary to assess the number of trips likely to be generated to
and from the site and where they are likely to travel. A trip is defined as a one-way
vehicular movement from 1 point to another excluding the return journey. Therefore,
a return trip to/from a land use is counted as two trips. There are no specific trip
rates in current traffic engineering guidelines for poultry farm land uses. Therefore to
determine an appropriate rate to forecast trip generation information has been sought
from the applicant and another poultry farm in Redland Bay, Queensland.

To accurately determine the impact of the development an understanding of the
existing orchard operations has been undertaken to compare the traffic generated
previously from the site in contrast to the proposed traffic generated from the site.


4.1      Existing Orchard Trip Generation

The subject site has been operating as an avocado and mango orchard for many years,
however due to changes in the business the orchard has been significantly reduced.
The mango trees have been removed and there has been a significant reduction in the
intensity of the avocado trees, both in regard to trees and size of fruit produced. The
peak season for harvesting the fruits was February to September / October depending
on the season. The number of trips generated by the existing orchard operations prior
to reducing the orchard was provided by the operator. Information generated from the
site included the following;

                Table 2 – Previous Avocado and Mango Trip Generation
     Movement Description               Trips Per Year  Average Trips per day
     Staff during picking                  5,250 trips         60 vpd
      (7 days /week for 25 week a year)
     Staff during other periods             675 trips           6 vpd
     (5 days /week for 27 weeks)
     Supplies during harvesting             200 trips           1 vpd
     (4 trucks per week)
     Supplies outside harvesting            108 trips           1 vpd
     (2 trucks per week)
     Box supplies during packing            196 trips           2 vpd
     ( 1 small truck per day)
     Transport of product during            700 trips           4 vpd
     harvest
     (2 trucks per day)
     Fuel, maintenance and repairs                              2 vpd
     (average 1 vehicle per day)
     Total Average                                       76 vehicles per day

Therefore the existing property generated an average of 76 vehicles per day including
4 trucks.


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