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Byron Shire
October 20, 2026

The Crack to Tyalgum restored and reopened

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Piling pad construction at Tyalgum Road extreme slip. (PIC supplied)

The road running to Tyalgum, including double lane access to Tyalgum village, has been restored for the first time since the 2022 floods. 

 The Tweed Shire Council says the road known to many as ‘The Crack’, has been fully restored, having experienced a landslip more than 100m wide and 60m deep as part of the 2022 flood disasters.

The main arterial road between Tyalgum and Murwillumbah has been unpassable since, forcing residents and visitors to take a longer alternative route via Chillingham.

Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot says the $24 million project was funded by federal and state government grants through official Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement and happened in several phases, owing partly to weather constraints.

NSW Minister for Roads and Regional Transport Jenny Aitchison says the Minns Labor Government has quadrupled disaster recovery funding from $190 million per year under the previous government, to an average of more than $800 million per year.

An engineering feat

Installation of soil anchors on 'The Crack' road to Tyalgum, March 2025 (PIC supplied)

Contractors did core drilling through concrete piles ahead of inserting soil nails on ‘The Crack’ road to Tyalgum, January 2025 (PIC supplied)

The Tweed Shire Council says contractor SEE Civil started work on ‘The Crack’ in March 2023.

Nearly all, or 90%, of the SEE Civil employees were residents of the Tweed Shire, according to the council, including supervisors, engineers, project managers and machine operators.

A 70-tonne crane working in tandem with a huge piling machine was used to install 130 concrete piles driven 15 metres into the earth.

Another 130 pile tieback anchors were bored into the bank and 3300 tonnes of rock brought in to fill 197 gabion baskets that were locked together.

Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry has thanked council staff, the contractors and the Tyalgum community.

Tyalgum Road (looking west), March 2022 (PIC supplied)



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