And while excavations are now complete the Waitaki District Council cannot say yet when the road will reopen.
The Ministry for the Environment has also yet to decide to waive about $3.5million of waste disposal levies for Project Reclaim.
The council is being levied to shift the contents of the former Hampden dump and from Beach Rd to a special cell at the Palmerston landfill.
Both dump sites under Project Reclaim were previously identified as an environmental time bomb as the rate of coastal erosion escalated.
Waitaki District solid waste manager Steve Clarke said this week the second part of the $12m-$15m Project Reclaim project at Beach Rd is on track.
"It’s going very well ... It’s on schedule with excavation now completed," he said.
About 20,000 tonnes had been taken from two points along Beach Rd.
The original estimate was about 12,000 tonnes.
About 48,000 tonnes had been taken from the former Hampden dump.
Mr Clarke did not directly respond when asked if Beach Rd would reopen by Christmas.
The council previously said it was "the aim" to reinstate the road by December.
Mr Clarke has previously said the five-month road closure was fluid, given the unknown quantities of waste and the subsequent work needed to rebuild the road.
However "more waste than was expected" had been found.
"Now excavation is complete we’ll be assessing the site with our contractors and looking at remediation options."
A hoped-for waiver of $3.5m of waste disposal levies for Project Reclaim was still dependent on the Ministry for the Environment (MOE), Mr Clarke said.
At a council activity update in September councillors were told the first $1.8m waste disposal levy bill had arrived and the second bill was due.
"They’re both in dispute until the Ministry for the Environment consider our application for levy exemption," natural and built environment director Roger Cook said.
This prompted Cr John McCone to ask how much council had "thrown into climate change" measures given "most of it’s assumptions".
"It’s not a head-in-the-sand question ... We do know that it’s getting hotter," he said.
"We do know there’s erosion on the foreshore.
"We do know that after a dry spell it is a flood, and considering our fiscal policy, how much are we actually throwing at it on an assumption?"
Mr Cook said he did not have a "dollar value" immediately available.
"I would say we’re putting a lot less into it than any other territorial authorities.
"And an awful lot less than any of the regional authorities."
Waitaki’s comparable progress on the climate change front "would be regarded as slow" compared to other districts.
But it was obliged to report "certain aspects" which it was working towards.
"We’re very conscious of the view around climate change within Waitaki and I would say we are probably doing our bare minimum," Mr Cook said.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said the difficulty for district was that it bridged two regional council areas with different overarching environmental plans.
Cr Hopkins said he was under the impression that Waitaki would not have to pay $3.5m of levies.
Mr Cook said legislation had been passed to allow the waste levy waiver to be considered.
The MOE had to adjust its internal processes to do that, Mr Cook said.
Meanwhile, the unpaid levy, by agreement, was "in dispute".
