Damage to the Snowy Mountains Highway on Brown Mountain. Photo: Supplied.
Repair work is planned to fix the largest of the nine most recent landslip sites that damaged the Snowy Mountains Highway on Brown Mountain.
Landslips, rockfalls and repairs are common on the mountain’s road and a community group has previously taken aim at what it perceives as government inaction to fix the problems.
But on Wednesday (20 March), the NSW Government announced $2.6 million worth of work would soon begin to repair the largest of the nine landslip sites.
The work will run for about 20 weeks from 8 April and take place about 800 metres west of the Brown Mountain Power Station to repair significant damage caused by severe weather in 2022.
It will be “one of the Brown Mountain’s biggest repair jobs”, Member for Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain said.
“This work will improve road safety and go a long way to preventing further erosion,” she said.
Member for Monaro Steve Whan said the closures to the highway over the past couple of years, which were due to landslips caused by unprecedented rain, had greatly impacted the Monaro and Bega electorates.
“As the major arterial road connecting the NSW Sapphire Coast with Canberra, Brown Mountain is used not only by tourists during the winter and summer seasons, but by ambulances and transport services each and every day,” he said.
A landslip on the Snowy Mountains Highway at Brown Mountain. Photo: Supplied.
A government spokesperson said Transport for NSW appointed specialist ground engineering contractors Piling & Concreting Australia to drill and install more than three kilometres of seven-metre-long steel rods to anchor the section of failed slope before applying a layer of spray-on concrete to prevent further erosion.
“The repair work will be carried out with large machinery and workers operating in an area about as wide as a standard single-car garage to repair a site about the size of a suburban house block, which creates some unique challenges and risks,” the spokesperson said.
While motorists will still be able to access the highway during the work, part of it will be reduced to a single lane.
The government spokesperson said contracts were expected to be finalised soon for more repairs to be carried out this year on another three of the landslips.
Tenders are also being assessed for a site about one and a half kilometres east of the Fred Piper Memorial Lookout where the highway has been limited to a single lane due to extensive damage.
The $2.6 million repairs that will start this April are funded by the State and Federal Governments.
Motorists are advised to allow five minutes extra travel time when the works begin.
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