Lawrence Hargrave Drive closure

Slope repair work has been completed on schedule, with the road reopened by 5pm Sunday 9 August.

Transport for NSW thanks the community for their patience during this essential work.

For more information see video of work carried out over the eight week road closure.

Ten individual sites along the downslope of the road between Lady Wakehurst Drive and Chellow Dene Avenue were repaired and stabilised to help reduce the risk of slips and failures

Work included:

• a 29 metre-long concrete retaining wall has been built at the highest risk site to stabilise and strengthen the slope
• installation of about 900 soil nails of up to 12 metres in length
• four kilometres of drains installed
• 5000 square metres of stabilising mesh laid
• 900 square metres of shotcrete installed
• road resurfacing was carried out on sections of the road and minor guardrail repairs were completed
• about 5000 square metres of hydromulch and seeding

Further trees and shrubs will be planted in the coming months to ensure they have the best chance of thriving.

Due to recent heavy rainfall, installation of a small number of drains was not completed at Site 9, located close to Chellow Dene Avenue. Transport for NSW will complete this work in the coming months and can access this site below the road, without requiring a road closure. The community will be updated about this work in advance.

Community members utilised additional transport services including extra stops on existing train services and Stanwell Park shuttle buses, with more than 4500 journeys made by passengers on the shuttle throughout the eight week road closure.

School and train services have returned to normal timetables from Monday 10 August.

Transport for NSW will continue to carry out essential maintenance work on this section of Lawrence Hargrave Drive under night road closures about four times each year and will regularly inspect and monitor the slopes along the entire road.

Transport for NSW is providing additional transport during this work to help minimise the impact on the community, including:

• Additional stopsat Stanwell Park station. On weekday mornings two existing services travelling to Central will temporarily stop at Stanwell Park, and on weekday afternoons one existing service from Central will temporarily stop at Stanwell Park.

  On weekends express services will make temporary stops at Stanwell Park to increase train services during the road closures.

  Train timetable information is available at transportnsw.info.

• Shuttle busbetween Stanwell Park and the train station. We will operate shuttle buses to transport Stanwell Park residents to and from train services. The shuttle buses will be operating on weekdays between 6am and 9pm, Saturdays between 7.30am and 6.30pm and Sundays between 8.30am and 5pm.

For more information including a map of the route, bus stops and service frequency please see our updated map (PDF, 380Kb) and timetable (PDF, 60.5Kb).

• School shuttle buses.

  We have changed existing school bus services for children attending primary schools on the other side of the closure.

  These arrangements will be in place during this work to help minimise the impact of the closure for families living in and around the Stanwell Park area.

  Schools included in these arrangements are:

  • Holy Cross Catholic Primary School
  • Shire Christian School
  • Stanwell Park Public School
    The services will travel via the detour route and will be running about one hour earlier/ later.

    For more information please view the School bus services Fact Sheet (PDF, 120Kb) or visit our Routes and timetables website for bus stop locations and timetables.

• Community members can also use existing Route 15 bus services to travel between Helensburgh train station and the Helensburgh area.

Lawrence Hargrave Drive crosses the Illawarra Escarpment at a geotechnically unstable location. It is prone to slope movement creating cracking in the road surface and shoulders.

We have conducted in-depth geotechnical investigations and as a result, we have identified a number of sites between Otford Road and Chellow Dene Avenue where we need to carry out work to stabilise the slope and reduce the risk of land slips.

Work to be carried out includes installing soil nails and other remediation work to reinforce and strengthen the ground.

We will also construct a concrete retaining wall and improve drainage to assist with groundwater run-off, which can contribute to cracks in the road surface.

This work is essential to keep the road safe and open to traffic in the longer term.

Transport for NSW consulted the community around four options from November to December 2019 on plans for the project. The community was asked to provide feedback on closing the road in two four week stages with work taking place 24 hours a day. Following the feedback from this consultation we developed four options for further community and stakeholder feedback.

The second consultation received 720 responses, 717 of these respondents selected a preferred option to carry out the work.

The consultation was carried out to gain a better understanding of the Stanwell Park area and how our customers use this stretch of road, to help inform plans to carry out the essential slope stabilisation and maintenance work on Lawrence Hargrave Drive.

Consultation period 1 (July - August 2019) - consultation report (PDF, 607Kb)

Consultation period 2 (November - December 2019) consultation report (PDF, 404Kb)

• The work will reduce the risk of land slips on the downhill slope
• Slopes will be strengthened using a variety of methods
• Cracks in the road surface will be repaired and drainage improved to reduce water pooling
• It will address the risk of a potential long-term closure of Lawrence Hargrave Drive due to land slippage.

We have held discussions with all emergency services and will continue to work with these and other affected stakeholders to deliver effective incident management plans.

We are also working directly with authorities including Wollongong City Council, NSW Train Link, the freight industry, emergency services, schools and local businesses.

We thank the community for their patience while we carry out this important safety work.

View or download:

• Fact sheet - school bus services - June 2020
• Frequently asked questions - May 2020
• Frequently asked questions - February 2020
• Frequently asked questions - November 2019

The community was invited to have their say on potential closures on Lawrence Hargrave Drive while essential safety work is carried out.

Transport for NSW developed alternative options to carry out this work based on the feedback received. We invited the community to complete a further survey to identify their preferred option.

The options available for feedback were:

A map (PDF, 184Kb) showing the one lane alternating traffic arrangements included in Option C and D is available to view.

• May 2020 project notification

  Slope stabilisation work on Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Stanwell Park from Tuesday 9 June to Tuesday 4 August.

• February 2020 project notification

  Slope stabilisation work on Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Stanwell Park.

• November 2019 project notification

  Have your say – revised options for slope work on Lawrence Hargrave Drive at Stanwell Park.

• Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Stanwell Park – detour map June – August 2020

  Road closure Lawrence Hargrave Drive, Stanwell Park.

• Stanwell Park shuttle bus map

  Stanwell Park shuttle bus service.

• February 2020 consultation report

  Lawrence Hargrave Drive slope stabilisation project.

• October 2019 consultation report

  Lawrence Hargrave Drive slope stabilisation project.

• 6 August 2020

  Lawrence Hargrave Drive to reopen this Sunday.

• 19 May 2020

  Slope repair work to start on Lawrence Hargrave Drive at Stanwell Park.

• 16 December 2019

  Stanwell Park Station gets temporary express stop train services during Lawrence Hargrave Drive work.