Council Road Verge Vegetation Control

Ruapehu District Council (RDC) has responded to a number of enquiries around how they are managing roadside vegetation.

RDC Land Transport Team Leader, Warren Furner, said that recently there has been a spate of comments on how Council was managing roadside vegetation coming through our Facebook page and other channels.

“Council has a full time crew mowing roadsides on the local network,” he said.

“Unfortunately at this time of year we could double the amount of resource dedicated to verge mowing and still struggle to meet everyone’s expectations.”

“Our new mowing contractor Mulch and Mow are achieving their contracted obligations however the scale of their task is huge with about 900 km of rural roads outside the urban mowing areas to be mowed on both sides.”

“At about 55km per week you can understand one rotation takes about 4 months.”

“This is the affordable level of service at the moment which means that some higher volume roads will need to be prioritised over lower volume roads which will be attended to in time.”

Mr Furner added that in terms of minimising rural fire hazard, the Council is currently considering the potential risk that verge mowing poses.

“There have been a number of major rural fires around NZ in recent weeks caused by machinery,” he said.

“The rain we have been having will help mitigate any fire risk however should the hot summer weather return with a vengeance Council will need to consider minimising the risk of fire caused by sparks from verge mowing?”

“One possible option being considered includes reducing the amount of low level mowing.”

“This would mean prioritising mowing to high volume roads, intersection sight lines and in-bends.”

“If fire risk became extreme more drastic options could include no verge mowing at all and focusing the contractor on high lift mowing of overhanging trees and scrub followed by a total mowing ban.”

Mr Furner said that Council is actively managing this situation.

“Of course the current warm, wet weather is ideal for plant growth so our contractor is going to be busier than ever.”

“We would ask that people continue to advise us when they feel there is significant risk to motorist and pedestrian safety on our network so we can respond accordingly.”

“Feedback from the community is invaluable in this respect,” he said.

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