Road repairs for flood-damaged highway imminent

Repairs to the Lyell Highway are set to begin more than 11 months after a landslide wiped out a section of the road.

Construction work is scheduled to begin on the highway between Hayes and Rosegarland - adjacent to the River Derwent - on Monday, with repairs expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The works will be undertaken between 7am and 6pm on weekdays, with some repairs to be done on occasional Saturdays.

The section of the highway has been reduced to a single lane since the landslip, with similar traffic management plans to be in place during the road reconstruction.

Derwent Valley Mayor Michelle Dracoulis said that additional delays of up to eight minutes should be expected while the work is being completed.

“The contractor will try to avoid a full road closure of the Lyell Highway,” Cr Dracoulis said.

“However, if a full road closure is required, the contractor will work with the Derwent Valley Council to provide detours on council roads.”

A State Growth spokesperson said the complexity of landslide repairs was the reason behind the delays in construction work to fix the section of the Lyell Highway damaged in the September 2024 floods.

“We performed extensive investigations and assessments to determine the safety of the site and assess the damage to the hillside and road,” they said.

“We engaged specialists from Tasmania and across Australia to ensure the right people with the right knowledge were working on this project.

“We experienced some delays in performing investigations due to bad weather and river levels.”

State Growth has advised recreational anglers that they can still fish in the area of the repairs.