Bulli Pass will be closed for five nights a week for the next five months to allow for extensive repair work on four landslip sites along the road.
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Starting next week, the pass will be shut from 7.30pm-4.30am from Sunday to Thursday to fix damage caused by the record-breaking floods in March and June 2022.
The repairs have been planned for some time and are not related to the tragic crash at the bottom of Bulli Pass involving a runaway truck and an SUV which killed one man and hospitalised three other people on February 16.
Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast Ryan Park said the $8 million project was critical to make Bulli Pass more resilient in future severe weather.
"Transport for NSW will be installing more than 500 long steel rods, called soil nails, that will add strength to the mountain slope and then applying over 1600 square metres of spray-on concrete, known as shotcrete, to prevent further erosion," he said.
"The crews will also install new drains, repair damaged road pavement and replace guardrails, as needed and help protect this important corridor for the Illawarra."
Work will begin on February 27, with multiple crews to work side-by-side so the complex repairs can be completed as quickly as possible.
However, there will still be several months of changed traffic conditions on Bulli Pass, with the road needing to close completely to fix three of the four landslips.
These are located at the top section of the pass, between the M1 Princes Motorway and hairpin bend, with another about one kilometre downhill from the hairpin bend.
Heathcote MP Maryanne Stuart said the damaged sections of the road were steep and narrow, making the repairs very challenging.
"The steep sites will involve use of large machinery, such as long-reach excavators, and workers abseiling on the slope to carry out some of the repairs," she said.
"The conditions of the road and work involved create a unique set of risks and to keep motorists and workers safe, there needs to be a combination of full road closures and partial lane closures while the work is carried out."
The total area of the sites which need to be repairs is about the size of two Olympic swimming pools, Transport for NSW said.
The landslips occurred when the escarpment received almost five times the average monthly rainfall in March 2022, and then eight and a half times the average in June.
Detours will be in place during the road closures either via Lawrence Hargrave Drive or the M1 Princes Motorway and Memorial Drive adding up to 20 minutes to journeys.
The project is jointly funded by the NSW and Commonwealth Governments.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
