SH11 at Lemons Hill, Bay of Islands, fully functional again after sealing

The fresh seal on SH11 past Lemons Hill. The concrete safety keeps vehicles away from the edge of the hillside and stops any loose material that washes down the slopes from going on to the road.

It's taken over a year but State Highway 11 between Kawakawa and Opua is fully repaired after a massive slip closed the road at Lemons Hill last February.

The NZ Transport Agency has completed another milestone in the rehabilitation of Lemons Hill, with the resealing of State Highway 11 past the hillside.

The resealing was completed last week, just over a year since the big slip that led to months of road closures and disruption for locals and visitors to the Bay of Islands, NZTA Northland system manager Jacqui Hori Hoult said.

"The resealing of the road is the icing on the cake, really. It completes the restoration of the state highway after the slip," she said.

"The road has been open to two-way traffic since July but we haven't until now been able to restore the road surface to a standard befitting a state highway. It's been a hot summer with long sunny days and little rain in Northland, which is perfect weather for road sealing. But think back to January-February of last year and it was a totally different story."

The massive slip that closed SH11 at Lemons Hill, in February 2018.

Weeks of persistent heavy rain in January weakened the hillside and the slip on February 13 was followed by Cyclones Fehi and Gita, which hampered the slip clearance work.

It took five months of hard work, and the removal of 50,000 cubic metres of loose materials and trees to stabilise the hillside. That left five big benches cut into the hillside with new grass and native bush planted to aid regeneration.

"Looking back, it was a big event for Northland and for our teams and we really appreciated that the local community got behind our efforts to open the road as soon as it was safely possible," she said.