The National Parks and Wildlife Service have released the following information regrading the ongoing works on the Elliott Way.

Despite recent wet weather and storms, the ‘make safe’ works on the Elliott Way are progressing. The road is currently closed near Cabramurra on the eastern side, and at O’Hares Campground on the western side as work is undertaken to firstly stabilise the ground, and then make repairs to the slope to enable the road to re-open.

The images also show the difficult terrain workers are encountering, and the precarious nature of the works as they negotiate the steep slope.

In the previous NPWS update in March, they were hoping to have the road open prior to winter. They state below the works have been pushed back by two weeks.

Here are the latest details supplied by NPWS.

• As outlined in the last update, the ‘make safe’ works aim to stabilise the slip face crest to prevent further growth, secure the slip face, and enable safe access to the site from the roadway for the future permanent site stabilisation works.
• The works above the slip site have been completed with the top row of anchors drilled and installed, and the crest scaled with mesh secured in place.
• More recent work has being methodically moving down the exposed slope, with the team manually scaling and remove debris. Larger rocks are being ‘persuaded’ to move with the assistance of air bags (see photos below).
• In addition to cleaning to exposed face, an additional three rows of anchors are being drilled and installed on the face.
• The hillside is proving to be softer conditions than expected with the drilling showing it is generally decomposed granite with voids. This has made for slower drilling and in particular the volumes of grout required to secure anchors has been much greater than expected and well above the volume of the drill hole. This is due to the grout being accommodated within the soft ground and voids.
• The slower drilling and delays due to unsafe working conditions from wet weather and lightning storms has pushed the works program back by 2 weeks at present.
• Work is continuing 7 days per week with the dedicated team working through the Easter period.
• Additional drilling work has been undertaken to provide sacrificial anchor tests to provide site specific data that will feed into the ongoing geotechnical assessment and design work.
• Geotechnical engineers will use this data to update the risk assessment of the site conditions, and to progress the design for permanent engineering works to address all hazards at the site. As this component of work progresses over the next 2-3 weeks it is hoped that this will provide clarity on the next steps.

A further stakeholder update will be provided in a few weeks once the geotechnical risk assessments and design for the permanent works have progressed.

The closure can be viewed here on Live Traffic website.