The Far North District Council has taken the unprecedented step of closing all its unsealed roads to logging trucks as heavy rain continues in the region.
The ban will also apply to trucks carrying gravel and rock into forestry areas to build new roads.
Council infrastructure manager Dave Penny says the council has closed one or two roads before in bad weather but it's the first time it's closed the entire metal road network .
Mr Penny says the Far North council does not have the money to fix the sort of damage logging trucks can do in a very short time on roads that were never built for heavy traffic.
He says logging traffic is double what it was a few years ago and a number of roads have been wrecked already this winter after weeks of rain.
Mr Penny says if forestry contractors comply with the ban it may be possible to re-open the unsealed roads next week.
