'Significant' cracks have opened up Four Mile Creek Road with Cabonne Shire Council closing a section due to fears of a major landslip.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The road is closed around four kilometres from the intersection of Cadia Road and Four Mile Creek Road, with a detour in place via Orchard Road onto Forrest Reefs Road, Tallwood Road into Errowanbang Road and onto Panuara Road.
With the road standing above a four metre drop, council's General Manager Bradley Byrnes said they were left with little choice and are working with geotechnical engineers to asses the damage.
"We were advised on Sunday that there had been some fairly significant cracking in the roadway," Mr Byrnes told the Daily.
"We've had the road closed and monitoring it and it's gotten significantly worse over the past couple of days to the point where it's obvious there is a significant undermining, which given the topography of the land, could mean a major slippage consequence.
"If this slippage occurs it cascades. There's no other way to go but down. There's not an alternate way of going down, it's at a pinch point which needs significant attention."
Mr Byrnes said he understood the frustration for drivers, who only two months ago saw Cadia Road closed, and now have a detour time blowing out from 10 minutes to close to 40, but that warning signs had failed as a means of deterrence.
"Council has made a difficult but necessary decision based on safety of road users," he explained.
"We've already had evidence of people ignoring temporary barriers we had in place and going around the problem.
"We don't want any tragedies here and there's enough evidence that people do ignore safety measures when they are put in place, even in times like this where there are hazards everywhere.
"Yes it's frustrating and we understand the anger but we want people to be safe and we want them to think and not do silly things."
Deputy General Manager of Infrastructure Matthew Christensen said the damage was clearly getting worse.
"It's moved probably another inch since Monday afternoon and the cracking has at least another 10-20 millimetres on some of the serious cracks," he revealed.
"It's going to be a significant bit of work. The cutting we're standing on is about four metres in height....so it will need at least four meters of excavation over 40 metres.
"Typical fixes like this usually take around the four to five month mark. We are hopeful we will be able to do it quicker than that."