St Marys Pass and Elephant Pass repairs

Elephant Pass open – 10 March 2023

The pass was closed on 3 January 2023 to complete repairs on a section of the road damaged during heavy rains last spring.

This work involved building a roughly 400-metre-long gabion wall to support the road.

Repairs to four other minor landslips and the replacement of a culvert were also completed during the road closure. While these were not urgent safety issues, there was potential for them to deteriorate when winter returns and the opportunity was taken to do them while the road was closed and work crews were on site.

St Marys Pass open – 19 December 2022

A landslip and undermining closed the road in late October and significant works have been required to rebuild the road and make it safe. Our works included building a gabion wall to support the road from below and installing a retaining wall to protect the road from above.

Two smaller landslip sites were also repaired and drainage repairs and improvements have been completed.

The gabion retaining wall is made up of about 210 baskets, is about seven metres tall and 40 metres wide, and is filled with 3000 tonnes of rock. About 400 tonnes of base material was used and just over 75 cubic metres of concrete was used to build and support the gabion wall.

We have built concrete block walls to support four other downhill slips with just over 100 concrete blocks used.

A revegetation spray-on solution containing grass and plant seeds, fertilizer and binders, has been used on steep and exposed soil faces to help prevent further slips and debris from falling on the road in heavy rain.