Dannevirke News reporters Christine McKay and Sonita Chandar spent an afternoon with the crews working on the Manawatu Gorge slip, which has closed the road since August.
The rumble of trucks and falling debris is a sign progress is being made to clear the massive 200,000 cubic metre slip in the Manawatu Gorge.
Closed since August 18, crews are working at full capacity and putting in long hours to clear the site to allow the road to reopen, site manager, Kerry Robb told the Dannevirke News.
"This is the 45th day working in the gorge since we cut the track up the western side of the ranges to the top of the slip. We have cleared about 35 metres from the top which is not a lot, but believe me, a lot of material has come over. Approximately 35,000 cubic metres has been carted away from bottom of the slip so far but it looks like we have hardly moved anything. It's a big job," he said
To help speed things up, a larger digger with a three metre bucket has been brought in but Mr Robb said it didn't matter how hard and fast they worked, the crews could only do so much each day.
"We are currently working six days a week and start around 6am and sometimes don't knock off until 8pm so we are putting in some pretty long hours. Now that some of the other men have come back from holidays, we will move to working seven days."
In addition a crew is six are working at the top of the second bench and Mr Robb said their work was going well.
John Jones, NZTA acting regional state highways manager, said the second bench was almost complete, with work due to start on the third bench this week.
"As we move down the slip, we will cut a series of at least five benches, including the two that have almost been completed. An assessment will then be made whether or not to continue benching down to road level. Each bench slopes towards the Totara Stream on the Woodville side of the slip. The Totara Stream follows an inactive fault formed in a solid sandstone bluff, so it provides a stable area to discharge rain and ground water away from the slip."
Despite recent storms, which dumped 35mm of rain on the site, there was only minor damage to the edge of bench one, Mr Jones said.
Eventually the hillside will be taken back to the rock face. Three times a day the crew at the bottom moves off the slip, allowing the diggers at the top to push debris down.
"We try to optimise our time as much as possible and when the guys do a push from the top, we have to stop so this is when we take our smoko and lunch breaks," Mr Robb explained.
"The push is necessary but frustrating. The hole we make at the bottom gets filled up again so we have to start all over again but it doesn't take us long to catch up again. "However, it has to be done because the worst thing we can do is keep on digging and undermine the whole lot. It would definitely be quicker to bring it all down but it doesn't work like that," he said.