REPAIRS to damage on Bulli Pass are progressing with work starting at all four landslip sites last month.

The work is being carried out to repair damage caused during the record-breaking rainfall across the Illawarra and South Coast in 2022.

An extensive work program began in February 2024 to repair the remaining landslip damage on Bulli Pass. This work is expected to take up to six months to complete.

The work will be carried out four landslip sites, including three sites in the top section of Bulli Pass between the M1 Princes Motorway and hairpin bend and another about one kilometre downhill from the hairpin bend.

The critical part of the work involves installing long steel rods, called soil nails, that will add strength to the mountain slope and then applying a layer of spray-on concrete, known as shotcrete, to prevent further erosion.

The work also includes installing new drains, repairing damaged road pavement and replacing guardrails.

While the work is carried out, Bulli Pass will be closed to all traffic in both directions Sunday to Thursday nights, from 7.30pm and 4.30am.

Detours will be either via Lawrence Hargrave Drive or M1 Princes Motorway and Memorial Drive.

The left-hand northbound lane about one kilometre downhill from the hairpin bend will also be closed both day and night.

Some unplanned repairs were completed in the third week of the project to provide extra strength to a part of the slope when new cracks appeared in the road surface where heavy machinery was operating.

A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said the repairs have held very well, and the work has been able to continue with some changes to the way it is being carried out.

“After preparing all the sites ready for the main work, more than half of the soil nails have now been installed at the two sites closest to the top of Bulli Pass,” the spokesperson said.

“Work at the hairpin bend has included building new stormwater drains and reshaping the slope to better manage run-off during heavy rainfall. The rockfall fence has also been re-installed.

All the existing shotcrete surface (about 1200sqm) has been removed from the site in the lower section.

The spokesperson said the next steps will see the installation of soil nails continue at all four sites over the next month, construction of more drains, the start of work to install a capping beam to the outer edge of the road at the top site and removal of loose soil and rock at the hairpin bend.

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