Rock fall closes State highway 6 near Makarora for remainder of today

A large rock fall that has closed State highway 6 about 15km south of Makarora since early yesterday morning, will keep the highway closed for the remainder of today as well.

There will be a further update at 6pm today on when the highway is likely to open. That could be at some stage tomorrow, but depends on good progress in clearing debris from the site. Before any decisions on re-opening the highway is made, we need to be confident that it’s safe to do so.

The contractor spent about three hours clearing the slip yesterday. They couldn’t get on to the site until after a helicopter fitted with a monsoon bucket, cleared remaining loose rock from the top of the rock fall area to make it safe for workers.

It’s too early to say how much this clearing work will cost.

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