The Fiji Roads Authority is planning to ban the use of river gravels in roadworks from next year.

Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Moore says with river gravel material – the consistency of the stone is uncertain and it also causes irreparable damage to the environment.

He says the FRA is intending to move in the direction of managed land-based extraction rather than river gravel extraction because of environmental and social impacts.

Moore says sustainability remains a serious consideration for the Authority and they will be implementing this change as soon as sufficient hard rock sources are available to meet the demand.

He adds a future FRA strategy will be to obtain quarry licenses and then manage the rock extraction and crushing activities under third party operation.