The Mercury Bay Community Board is investigating whether Bluff Road between Matarangi and Suckers Rock should be permanently closed.

A report with five options which includes further blasting and netting, removing the entire rock corner and closing the road permanently was tabled at the board's meeting last week.

The Mercury Bay Community Board is considering whether a section of Bluff Road between Matarangi and Suckers Rock should be permanently closed. Photo: Google Maps

Last year a substantial rock fall saw the section of the road closed for several months until blasting and netting work was completed on the bluff overhang, at a cost of $200,000.

The road was reopened in December, but days later another large rock fall saw it closed again.

The cost for options around further blasting and mesh netting through to removing the entire corner were up around the $400k mark, while the option for closure is estimated at $10k.

Mercury Bay area office manager Allan Tiplady says there are other ways traffic can get between Kuaotunu, Rings Beach and Matarangi.

'By either driving the state highway or using the Department of Conservation's track for walkers and cyclists above Rings Beach,” he says.

'If the Bluff Rd was the only access point between Matarangi and Kuaotunu south, then the board's recommendation may have been different.”

The board has also assessed the cost to open the road, against the small numbers of people who used it throughout the entire year.

But Allan says the board decided it wasn't financially prudent, or fair, for the district's ratepayers to foot the bill 'for a fix that in the end could cost up to half a million dollars”.

'That's if you also take into consideration what we have already spent so far. We also have no guarantee there would be no more rock falls in the future which would compound the bill for on-going maintenance costs.”

The Bluff Rd Options Report will now go to the Infrastructure Committee for consideration and then off to Council for a final decision.

If the Thames-Coromandel District Council closes Bluff Road, barriers and warning signage will be installed and any health and safety risk becomes an individual's responsibility.

THE FIVE OPTIONS FOR BLUFF ROAD:

• OPTION ONE: Rock blasting to create a 15m bench, 1m wide and approximately 10m above the road level. Mesh netting would then be installed and held by rock bolts and seawall protection works. Projected cost $220,000.
• OPTION TWO: Blasting two unsafe rock zones and installing rock fall mesh netting and partial rock anchors along with seawall protection work. This is similar to Option 1 but with rock anchors over 25 per cent of the rock face. Projected cost $305,000.
• OPTION THREE: Blasting overhang rock with rock anchors and structural mesh. Similar to Option One but using a more "active" type of rock anchor and structural mesh to achieve a higher measure of safety. Projected cost $320,000.
• OPTION FOUR: Remove a substantial part of the corner, which removes need for rock anchors or netting. Resource consent would be needed, seawall protection work is still needed and there is a high degree of uncertainty about the underlying rock structure. Projected cost $350,000.
• OPTION FIVE: Permanent closure of this section of the road. Safety risk is eliminated with all types of traffic using alternate routes (SH25 and DOC walking track). Projected cost $10,000.