Work may start soon on fixing a slip that has kept a Dunedin road closed since storms in June.
Council staff hope contractors will be able to begin work within weeks on installing a rock slope below Blanket Bay Rd to fix the lower of two slips at Sawyers Bay, near Dunedin.
Council transportation policy engineer Jon Visser said the wall would allow reinstatement of a 1m-wide gravel berm and fence alongside the road.
The work was estimated to cost about $80,000.
The 120sq m slip was across two private properties. The council had been talking to the property owners and once arrangements outlining responsibilities were finalised, the work should take six days, he said.
The road would reopen after that.
The land on which the wall would be built would remain in private hands but the council would do the work and be responsible for its ongoing maintenance, he said.
Plans for the bigger upper slip, under Upper Junction Rd, were also progressing. A remedial option had been all but agreed with the affected property owner, but final design details and legal arrangements over the land's status were yet to be confirmed.
At this stage, the preferred option was to install a reinforced engineered slope over the 1200sq m slip area, to preserve a natural look to the area while providing adequate support for Upper Junction Rd.
An engineered slope involved digging the slope down to a hard layer and layering a geotechnical fabric with appropriate soil and plant cuttings, compacting the layers and building them up to a natural-looking contour.
The cuttings would grow up through the synthetic fabric, returning it to a natural appearance, and sucking up any extra water that flowed down the slope.
The work would take up to six months and be done over the summer at an estimated cost of about $250,000.
The council was in discussions with Polly Mustard, the owner of the affected land, and ownership arrangements were still to be finalised, Mr Visser said.
Ms Mustard, whose access to her house was cut off (this has since been rectified by the council) and car crushed in the slip, said she had been working with the council and its engineers and they had been ''very supportive and responsive''.
''I hope that matters can progress and that we are able to reach a satisfactory solution for all concerned.''
