Although traffic has been flowing along the newly secured route since September, this was the red ribbon moment when Nambucca Shire mayor, Rhonda Hoban and the Member for Cowper, Luke Hartsuyker, jointly acknowledged the $5 million price tag was money well spent.

It was also the moment when all involved breathed a collective sigh of relief to feel the lingering black cloud of a possible landslide catastrophe now well and truly lifted.

“It was not a matter of ‘if’ not ‘when’,” the mayor told the Guardian.

“The first signs of the instability revealed themselves back in 2009, so to see this finished is wonderful.”

Mr Hartsuyker said when it was clear the extent of the problem was totally beyond the resources of the council, he had lobbied the Minister for Infrastrucutre, Warren Truss.

“I was delighted when he made the funds available,” Mr Hartsuyker said.

“More than 8000 vehicles a day use this road, more in summer ... this upgrade is now protecting residents against the loss of their homes from landslide as well as unnecessary job losses and traffic disruption.”

The upgrade was a challenging engineering project, made even more complex by the presence of an endangered community of littoral rainforest on the unstable embankment.

Design engineer, Steve Fowler, said a number of techniques were used including 10 kilometres of soil nails, tensioned mesh on the surface, shot-crete walls and rock revettment.

The project also included stabilisation work at Piggott St.

With the project so far under budget, additional works are expected to get underway shortly.