The 910 hectare Ferndale Plantation contributes to a $1.05 billion industry in the NSW South West Slopes region that employs thousands, including about 160 Albury residents.

As demand for output increases, so too will the transport operations to deliver products - but can the current road network handle the impact?

In the village of Woomargama, some residents believe not.

At the end of last year PF Olsen requested approval from Greater Hume Council to use B-Doubles for haulage from mid-2019 to 2026, as they have "both economic and safety benefits over standard semi-trailers".

Council had not previously approved B-Doubles on Tunnel Road, which runs from the village to the access point to the plantation, due to uncertainty of the load-carrying capacity of the Spring Creek Bridge and the narrow bitumen seals on the road.

It was suggested PF Olsen commission a report on the bridge's capacity and commit to $397,000 in upgrades to the road, and upon doing so were granted B-Double access at the November council meeting.

Resident Paul Rowe first learned of this in February after a customer at the post office run by his daughter mentioned road works would start soon.

"My foremost concern is the lack of communication by council to ratepayers about this," he said.

"The only communication I received was from PF Olsen, advising back in February 2017 of future logging operations.

"At the time it was envisaged a single skell trailer would be used.

"From an economics point of view B-Doubles make more sense, but this issue should have been open to debate before any decision was made."

Planned works to Tunnel Road include the construction of a passing bay not far from the village, guardrails on the bridge, and widening of shoulders.

But Mr Rowe believes the 10 kilometre route will still be dangerous despite the upgrades to be funded by PF Olsen.

"One kilometre of road 2.5km to 3.5km from Woomargama village will require full reconstruction and widening," he told the February council meeting.

"I assume this is the section of road that has two large crests outside Woomargama station.

"These crests are extremely dangerous due to reduced visibility to oncoming traffic.

"I would suggest further consideration needs to be given to safety aspects of these particular points if B-Doubles are to be encountered on them."

Trucks will be limited to 80 kilometres per hour from Woomargama to Ferndale Road, where Mr Rowe lives, and from there on until Tin Mines Trail a 50 km/h restriction is in place.

No truck movements will be permitted when school buses are operating.

Woomargama station manager Nick Wragge, who has not been permitted to use B-Doubles on Tunnel Road for livestock, wants a community meeting to be held by council.

"The main issue for me is lack of consultation, and I think there's a lot of questions people want to ask," he said.

"There's restrictions on speed and operating hours; I'd like to know how that is going to be enforced.

"Who is responsible for maintaining the road throughout operation?

"Will we get assurance the road will not be in a worse condition at the end of this?"

Tunnel Road is one of many roads used for timber haulage in Greater Hume Shire.

Howlong-Kywong road resident Greg Koschitzke has also spoken to council about the effect heavy vehicles are having on local roads.

"At the moment 2km is being widened and we appreciate that, but Howlong-Kywong Road is 116 km long," he said.

"With the amount of traffic on that road at the moment, especially heavy trucks with nine axles, it's pounding the sides to pieces and it's becoming very dangerous."

Greater Hume general manager Steven Pinnuck said council would respond to questions raised by Mr Rowe.

"Where opportunities arise, we'll undertake further negotiations with the logging company to see if we can make improvements that will increase safety and amenity," he said.

"In a shire like ours, where in the east of the shire we have plantations and to the west where we have plains country, geographically it's difficult (to maintain roads).

"Jingellic Road and Howlong-Kywong are roads we get lobbied the hardest about.

"From a timber plantation perspective, Tunnel Road and Coppabella Road are key logging roads as well."

During a meeting this week, Mr Pinnuck urged NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to consider fixed grant funding in a new roads program.

"We welcome the additional money, however we would have thought rather than being a competitive grants process, perhaps they could consider all or part of the funding being non-competitive so that each council gets an allocation," he said.  

"We know in our community what our priorities are, but trying to get those to stack up against the rest of the state can be difficult.

"The point I tried to make is 50 cents in every dollar that comes into our council goes to roads and it's still not enough."

A $20 million funding application to the NSW government's Growing Local Economies program by the Softwoods Working Group representing three shires including Greater Hume has not been successful.

Chairman Peter Crowe said they weren't 'nice to have' proposals.

"The roads we're talking about are absolutely vital to the forest industries because they have to carry between them one million tonnes of wood each year, for the next 10 years," he said.

"The South West Slopes region is the biggest growing and processing centre in Australia and is of global scale.

"One of the main roads of concern, Coppabella, will probably suffer from closure to heavy traffic in the winter, that's how poor a state it's in."

The knock-back of funding comes as a new report released last month warned of a short fall in supply for products from softwood timber plantations, like that managed at Woomargama by PF Olsen on behalf of Murray River Forests.

An outlook to 2050 by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences estimated there will be a shortfall in the volume of softwood sawlogs available to the domestic market of at least 2.6 million cubic metres per year from 2045 to 2049.

If new plantations will be required, as the report suggests, more haulage will be required in years to come.

Mr Rowe, who retired from a 43-year career with the Royal Austrian Navy to Woomargama in 2016, said caravans and cars towing boats often passed his property on their way to Talmalmo.

"You see how cars have to scuttle off to the side - imagine what it would be like if a B-Double was to come across a caravan on one of those bends," he said.

"From what I've been told Tunnel Road was built between the world wars and was always meant to be just an access road."

Mr Rowe's daughter Keisha Emery said since information had been displayed at her post office and general store about B-Double access, the feedback about the approval of B-Doubles had been mixed.

"Some people aren't bothered and remember when the highway went through the village, but there's a lot of people against it," she said.

The Ferndale plantation was authorised in March 2006 under the Plantations and Reafforestation Act 1999 and thinning has occurred over the past few years. 

PF Olsen Australia national operations manager Martin Crevatin said the South West Slopes region was the base for a large wood and paper processing industry producing 2.55 million tonnes of fibre annually to several wood and paper processors.

"Ferndale plantation is an important resource to the forest products industry of the South West Slopes," he said.

"PF Olsen Australia considers community safety and driver safety of vital importance.

"The use of B Double trailer configurations provides reduced truck movements and provides great safety to the community and the drivers."

Mr Crevatin said the company was working closely with Greater Hume and was waiting for the council to finalise its consultation process.

"Once this is completed, PF Olsen Australia will proceed with stakeholder engagement procedures," he said.

"Residents directly affected by truck movements will be notified by letter outlining the nature of the haulage operations, protocols to manage safety and mitigate effects on residents, and provide contact details for correspondence."