Harliwich Holdings owner Ken Harliwich, of Roxburgh, said Friday was a "beautiful'' day and had his bulldozer driver not been stopped at the gate to Waikaia Bush Rd, he would have had the vehicles out safely.
"It's work that we do every year,'' Mr Harliwich said.
"We knew that there was going to be fine weather.
"There was no new snow.
"It would have been no trouble at all.''
The contractors, along with members of the initial group of drivers who spent almost 20 hours stranded in their vehicles more than 1300m above sea level on the Old Man Range, were stopped by Central Otago District Council staff at the bottom of the road at Shingle Creek on Friday.
Mr Harliwich said he knew the area well and had built many of the roads that covered the hills in the Roxburgh area, including at Piano Flat.
His D7 bulldozer, capable of going through about a metre of snow, would have had a road "pushed through'' in about two hours, he said.
However, he could not guarantee the safety of the drivers once they were below the snow line.
He said he did not agree with the group going into the area originally.
"It could be considered dangerous driving, in my book,'' Mr Harliwich said.
"I think it's damn stupid.''
Harliwich Holdings office administrator Christine Bennenbrook said the owners of the trapped vehicles were "angry at what had happened'', as some of the men were builders and had their "livelihood'' up there.
People's lives were not going to be in danger and they had prepared well, Ms Bennenbrook said.
"We had it all sorted. It was very well organised. We had all the safety gear ... beacons.
"We've got a guy who works on the bulldozer who is very experienced. He knows the area very well.
"We were not going to put any of those people in danger.''
Harliwich Holdings had no intention of upsetting anyone and thought "if we could help them, we would'', she said.
Central Otago District Council infrastructure services executive manager Julie Muir said the group was stopped at the gate because it did not have consent to be on the road.
"They were stopped because it's illegal to go and do work on a council road without ... consent,'' she said.
Both Ms Muir and police believed the group had not made a second attempt to extract the vehicles yesterday, as had been indicated.
The road had not been officially closed but would eventually become impassable due to snow and ice blocking it, CODC roading manager Murray Hasler said.
It would close temporarily on the Southland side at Old Snow Pole Track from June 4 to October 20.
