Council is undertaking geotechnical investigations of many landslip sites west of Bellbrook.
There are 17 slips on Armidale Road at the point where it changes from sealed to unsealed roads, between Bellbrook and Blackbird Flat.
The majority of the slip sites can be addressed without a full road closure and will be managed under traffic control.
Where necessary to get enough information for design, the geotechnical investigation will be done with a truck-mounted drilling rig.
The drilling rig required for these investigations is quite large. In some cases, to be correctly positioned on some of the slip sites, given the narrow road width, the road will need to be completely closed.
Council is undertaking work that requires partial road closures until Christmas. Traffic control is in place in these cases.
From late January a combination of full and partial road closures will be needed. This work will take approximately 2-3 weeks.
The road closures will be worked around school bus times. Where full road closure is needed, this will be limited to 2-3 days per week, and during the middle part of the day, to minimise community impact.
Once these slips have been stabilised we will be sealing this currently unsealed stretch of road.
Kempsey Road (in Armidale Regional Council)
The Kempsey to Armidale Road remains closed to all traffic between Big Hill and Blackbird Flat.
The only exemptions are local residents of the road between those two locations for essential travel and for emergency and essential services.
Please do not ignore the variable message boards, signs and Live Traffic information that advise the road closure.
This means that George’s Junction is not available for camping, fishing or other recreational activities.
There are alternative campgrounds in the Armidale area, directions to which can be found on Google.
