WAUKIVRY Road between Bulahdelah and Gloucester was impacted by several landslips during the March 2021 natural disaster and was rendered impassable.

The worst landslip occurred 25 kilometres south of Gloucester, where an 80-metre section of road crashed down the hillside taking away the road in the process.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

“The road was closed to all traffic and there is no detour around the landslip, so we’re very pleased work has been completed,” said executive manager transport and engineering, MidCoast Council, Peter Gesling.

“Work has now been completed with vegetation clearing and earthworks.”

The restoration took ten months’ work by contractors to complete.

The landslip was of concern to residents, who were forced to travel through Bulahdelah to Nabiac and then across to Gloucester, which added many hours to their roundtrip journey.

Local resident Bev Maybury said “this new section of road will improve our lives greatly as instead of an hour and 15 to get from our place to Gloucester it will now be about 40 minutes, which is great not only for us but many others impacted by the road closure.

Realignment of the road was necessary and agreements had to be negotiated with affected private landowners.

Every effort was made to limit the impact of construction on local roads and residents.

Celebrations for the road’s re-opening fronted by MidCoast Mayor Claire Pontin.were witnessed by a happy crowd of locals.

The work to restore this roadwork was funded equally by the federal government and NSW state government. through their disaster relief programs.

Further work to seal a remaining 15km of gravel road between Bulahdelah to Gloucester is planned for later this year to complete the all-weather road.

By John SAHYOUN