Dealing with the impact that the region's maturing forestry estate will have on Wanganui's roads will need a much broader approach than reliance on local authorities.
That's the message from a forestry workshop hosted by the Wanganui District Council's rural community board.
The meeting attracted representatives from a wide number of neighbouring local authorities, prompted by concerns about the effects of forestry on rural roads and possible strategies for funding and managing that impact.
The Wanganui District Council recently carried out a district-wide study on the effects of forestry on rural roads which showed it would cost an extra $20 million over 30 years to continue to provide the present level of service.
Rural community board chairman Alan Taylor said it became clear during discussions that there was little consistency or robust approach to forestry controls "and this was something we could work together to develop and implement".
"There was also a willingness to look at the scale of the problems across the whole area, and not just Wanganui, using our model to assess the economic impact of the forestry industry," Mr Taylor said.
He said rural roads were "must haves" and councils could not afford to let their roading infrastructure become impassable.
"The study showed that a reactive approach to road maintenance is likely to be more cost effective than pre-emptive maintenance but a combination of both may eventuate."
The decade between 2020-30 was expected to be the period when the most intense harvesting of Wanganui's 15,000ha forest estate was anticipated.
Mr Taylor said the impact of that would extend well beyond Wanganui's local authority boundaries as logging trucks carried loads across other roads throughout the central North Island.
HARVEST TIME
$47.5 million: estimated cost of maintaining district roads when forest harvesting is expected to peak in 2020-2030
901km: the length of Wanganui roads affected by forestry activities
181km: the length of unsealed roads affected.
15,000ha: the size of Wanganui's forestry estate
New plan sought for roads in forestry peak
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