Applying for a traffic order: a guide for construction firms

When do you need a traffic order?

Whenever your work touches public traffic space. In Straßenbau and Tiefbau that is the normal case: an excavation in the carriageway, scaffolding on the footway, a skip at the roadside, material set down.

The legal basis is § 45 StVO. The verkehrsrechtliche Anordnung sets out how the work site is to be closed off and signed, and whether and how traffic is restricted, guided or controlled.

Important for jurisdiction: only the road traffic authority may issue the order. You as the construction firm submit the application and present the plan – the authority issues the order. No software and no service provider takes that step off your hands.

The process at a glance

What belongs in the application

The forms differ by municipality, but the required information is largely the same:

• Applicant with a contact person and their availability during the measure
• Location of the work site – street, house number or chainage, district
• Period, ideally with a buffer
• Type of work and its effect on traffic
• Verkehrszeichenplan, as a rule based on a standard plan to RSA 21
• Person responsible for traffic safety on site

In addition, many authorities require details of affected parking areas, public transport stops, access for emergency services and the diversion routing.

How long does it take?

Plan generously. The authority has up to three months from receipt of the Verkehrszeichenplan for the necessary orders.

In practice, simple and recurring measures go markedly faster – with a standard situation and a clean standard plan, often within a few days to weeks. But do not rely on that if a contractual date depends on it.

Practical note: With framework contracts for hazard sites, an individual order per deployment is often not workable. Many authorities therefore work with standing or framework orders for recurring work. Ask about that before you file eighty individual applications a month.

Where applications fail

What stands out: almost all the causes are organisational, not technical. The most common one is simply the timing.

The Verkehrszeichenplan as the core of the application

The plan is the actual document. It shows which signs and installations are set up where, and how traffic is guided past the work site.

The starting point is as a rule a standard plan to RSA 21 – for typical situations such as a half-carriageway closure or a footway closure there are ready-made patterns. Adaptation is needed practically every time: carriageway width, sightlines, accesses, duration.

Which standard plans exist and what to watch for when adapting them is described in Drawing an RSA 21 traffic sign plan .

What happens after the order

The order is not a formality to be filed away – it is binding:

1. Set up as ordered. Deviations are a liability risk.
2. Document. Photos of the signing as erected are worth their weight in gold in an incident.
3. Check. Signs get knocked over, turned round or stolen.
4. Take down and report when the measure ends.

The duty to keep traffic safe stays with you, regardless of what the order says.

Frequently asked

Can we start without an order if it is urgent? For an acute hazard, special rules for immediate measures apply – safeguarding comes before the formality. The order is then to be obtained without delay afterwards. Settle the procedure with your authority in advance, not in an emergency.

Who draws the Verkehrszeichenplan? You, or an office you commission. For recurring standard situations it is worth maintaining your own variants as templates rather than drawing from scratch every time.

Does one order cover several sites? As a rule no. For recurring work there are standing and framework orders – ask about them.

What does it cost? Depending on the municipality, administrative fees apply; the amounts differ considerably. The responsible body will state them on request.

Who is liable if a third party alters our barriers? Initially still the firm responsible for the work site – hence the duty to check. If it can be evidenced that the safeguarding was in order at the last documented check and the alteration happened afterwards, the assessment shifts. Without documentation there is no such relief.

We find it hard to fill in the German form. Is that an obstacle? Most of the form fields are names, addresses, dates and dimensions – they need no language. What does have to be understood is the authority’s query, and that usually asks about one single point: the remaining carriageway width, an access or a stop. If in doubt, ring the authority; case handlers prefer that to reading an incomplete application twice.

An application, step by step

By way of illustration, a typical situation: an excavation in a residential street, half-carriageway closure, planned duration four days.

Four to six weeks before – establish jurisdiction. Depending on the municipality, the road traffic authority is the Ordnungsamt, the Tiefbauamt or a traffic authority at district level. For classified roads a different body may be responsible than for municipal roads. One phone call saves a week here.

Three to four weeks before – draw the plan. Choose the standard plan, adapt it to the site, enter the dimensions. The most common rejection arises because the remaining carriageway width is not entered.

Two to three weeks before – submit the application. The authority’s form, the Verkehrszeichenplan, details of the period and of the responsible person. Some authorities accept applications only through a portal.

After receipt – processing. The authority has up to three months; with standard situations it goes faster. Queries mostly concern diversions, accesses or stops.

Before work starts – have the order in hand. Only then may anything be erected. The order belongs on the site, not in the office.

Standing and framework orders

For firms with framework contracts this is the practically most important point of the whole subject. Applying individually for eighty deployments a month is not workable for either side.

Many road traffic authorities therefore work with standing or framework orders for recurring work: for defined standard situations – short-term work sites for Gefahrenstellenbeseitigung, say – an order is issued once, with conditions on reporting and documentation.

What you generally have to present for it:

Ask about it before you spend the first quarter on individual applications. Even if the authority declines, you know early.

Fees and lead times: what to plan for

Both differ considerably by municipality, and only the responsible body can give serious figures. What can be said:

• Fees arise, usually graded by the scope and duration of the measure.
• Special-use fees can be added where traffic space is taken up – for a skip, for instance.
• Extensions cost again. Anyone scheduling tightly and having to reapply pays twice and waits again.

The practical advice from that: apply for the period with a buffer. A measure scheduled three days more generously is cheaper than an extension.

When it goes wrong

Three situations that occur, and what applies then:

The order is not in hand when work is due to start. Do not start. Signing erected without an order is legally ineffective, and in the event of damage the firm stands alone.

The order deviates from the plan submitted. The order applies. Setting up according to your own plan because you consider it better is acting against instructions.

The safeguarding is damaged or removed. The duty to keep traffic safe stays with the executing firm. Regular checks and documentation are therefore not formalism but the basis of your own relief from liability.

Traffic safety duty: what the order does not take off you

A widespread misunderstanding: that anyone holding an order and complying with it is out of responsibility. That is not the case.

The order sets out how to safeguard. The duty to guide traffic safely past the work site stays with the executing firm – even where the order has gaps.

In practice that means:

The third case is the most common. Barriers get knocked over, turned round or stolen, and regularly so. Without documented inspection rounds there is no way to evidence later that the safeguarding was in order at the time in question.

So every measure deserves a simple rhythm: photograph on erection, check daily on multi-day measures and record the inspection, photograph again on dismantling. Three actions – and in an incident they decide the evidence.

In summary

The order itself is always issued by the authority. What you can influence is the quality and the timing of your application – and that is precisely where it usually fails. Anyone who derives the plan from a suitable standard plan, schedules realistically and asks about a framework order for recurring work has ruled out the three most common causes.

How the plan is produced in Levora is on the page about traffic sign plans to RSA 21 .