Damage after a logging truck lost its load on Otaika Valley Rd earlier this month. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Funding needed to calm fears of further logging truck rollovers in Otaika Valley Rd will be sorted out when residents and Whangarei District Council representatives meet next week.
Whangarei Acting Mayor Phil Halse said yesterday funds for the road would be taken from other council projects where cash was not
immediately needed and the transfers would not affect the bottom line of the council budget.
The meeting between residents and councillors next Tuesday is expected to identify where speed restrictions and other steps are needed to improve safety on the 9.7km road, which logging trucks use as a bypass between Maungatapere on State Highway 14 and the Portland turn-off on State Highway 1 about 10km south of Whangarei.
On Wednesday night, more than 100 residents, council officials, truckies and police discussed traffic problems on the road at a public meeting at Maungatapere.
WDC roading manager Jeff Devine told the meeting the council was looking at reducing the speed limit to 80km/h and other ways to improve safety, but it would cost millions of dollars to eliminate danger sections of the road.
