Work continues at ‘complex’ slip above SH8

An excavator works at the top of the slip looming over State Highway 8 near the intersection with State Highway 8B and Deadmans Point Bridge, near Cromwell yesterday.

The NZ Transport Agency will install additional safety barriers at the site, allowing the road to reopen to two lanes, while work continues to stabilise the hillside above the highway.

Contract manager Mark Stewart said crews were aiming to have the safety barriers in place by tomorrow.

The road will remain restricted to a single lane until the barriers are in place.

He said an initial geotechnical assessment showed the slip’s movement was complex and unpredictable, and the job of stabilising the hillside and removing loose material was likely to take several weeks.

Sluicing work at the site had been suspended, and work would continue using a combination of abseil crews and diggers.