A crew of about 20 staff driving about a dozen mainly heavy machines, including D7 bulldozers, front-end loaders, excavators and snow plough-grit trucks, have been working three shifts from 6am to 10pm daily, clearing "hundreds of thousands of cubic metres of snow", Mr Robinson said.
"Good weather during the past five days has made it possible for the crews to get the road close to opening. It will be open by 11am [today]," Mr Robinson said when contacted yesterday.
Sections of State Highway 94 to Milford were buried by numerous avalanches up to several metres deep and closed on July 30, the first time in about "five or six years" the tourist trail had closed for so long.
"It [the length of closure] is not that unusual. We've just had a good run of weather in the past five years and people forget," Mr Robinson said.
It was only on Wednesday night workers broke through to the Homer Tunnel, the road between the tunnel and Milford Sound being still covered by about 1m of snow, and by yesterday a small-sized excavator had been used to clear the tunnel for traffic, he said.
Mr Robinson said the road itself had not been damaged by avalanche debris, although there was minor damage from the blades of the heavy machines.
He cautioned motorists heavy machinery would still be working on the road in coming days.
