THE National Parks and Wildlife have advised that the Elliott Way make safe works have been progressing well and the scheduled re-opening of the road on August 9th, 2023 is still on target.

There has been continuous work on the site including:

• Rutledge Drilling have now drilled 192 holes with only 20 more to go which should be completed by the end of this week.
• The total amount of grout used in the holes to date in order to secure anchors is 85,709 Litres.
• The installation of mesh is almost complete with almost 4,800 m2 installed.
• The drilling and bolting work to fix spider mesh panels over the large rock outcrops that could not be removed from the slip face is complete which assists in securing these rocks in place (see photos below).
• A recent milestone was reached in that the site was deemed safe enough for work to be undertaken at the base of the slope (as opposed to all work prior to this needing to be undertaken from above site suspended on ropes). This allowed the excavation and removal of the slip debris at the base of the slope so that the roadway could be cleared.
• Ten shipping containers have been brought to site to form a barrier along the road edge to protect motorists from any falling debris. The containers have been secured and filled with rock to provide the required mass to withstand rock falls.
• Despite all the work to date, a small slip of loose material and rock occurred last week which served as a timely reminder of the inherent instability of the site. This came from an area that had been drilled but not yet meshed. The container barriers served their purpose and contained all this material. This minor incident has not impacted progress of the works.

A further update will be sent on August 4 to confirm timing of the planned road opening.