By Charlotte Shipman
Two-hundred-thousand cubic metres of rock and debris block state highway 3 through the Manawatu Gorge.
The main access road between Manawatu and Hawke's Bay has been closed since September.
As long as commuters have to take alternate routes, Woodville’s Yummy Mummy cheesecake shop owner Trish Rodwell says her business is suffering.
“It's a huge amount of time added on to [commuters],” she says. “It's not that they don't want to go through Woodville - it's more the fact that it's taking extra time so they don't have that extra time to stop now.”
John Gooding, another business owner, says he also relies on business from through-traffic.
“About 75 percent of our business is passing trade so with out them we do starve,” he says.
While there are still ways to get through the gorge, it will be months until cars and trucks can use the gorge road.
New Zealand Transport Agency state highways manager David McGonigal says clearing the slip is its top priority but it will not be done by Christmas
“It's one of the most complex slips we've had in the Manawatu Gorge and it's certainly one of the most complex in New Zealand.”
He says it will take until the end of January before he has any idea how long it will take.
Work is underway but because the terrain is so unstable, it's slow and dangerous - one of the challenges is using heavy machinery on the shifting ground.
From the top of the slip, it is a 300 metre drop to the road so a 21-tonne winch called ‘Smokey’ will anchor the diggers as they cut a series of five-metre steps into the hillside.
They will push the unstable earth towards the road where it will eventually be trucked out.
3 News