The first of about 1,000 nails which will be used to stabilise the slopes at the side of a road tunnel where two people died in a landslip last summer will be drilled in place in April. Rosemary Snell and Michael Rolfe, from Somerset, died when their car was buried at Beaminster Tunnel in Dorset.
A section of the A3066, which runs through the tunnel, has been closed since 7 July following the landslip. It was due to reopen at the end of May but Dorset County Council said testing and design work had overrun which had delayed the repair works by three to five weeks.
Since December, the council said vegetation had been cleared from land above the north portal of the tunnel, drainage works had been carried out and the 12m (39ft) nails, which will be used to "pin" the soil at the site from 2 April, had been tested.
The council said tests had shown the nails can hold weights 1.5 times greater than the load they are expected to take at the site, which sustained a second landslip above the south entrance of the tunnel in November last year. Work to strengthen the arches at each end of the tunnel will also be carried out during the repairs.
Member of Beaminster and District Business Chamber, Richard Barker said although his business had "not been bad" as a result of the tunnel closure he thought it would have been "better" had it been open. "The tunnel has got to reopen before the main summer season starts," he added.
Beaminster ward county councillor Rebecca Knox said in a recent post on her website that "maximum work time" was needed to be spent on the repairs. Councillor Peter Finney, the county council's cabinet member for highways and transportation, said staff were "working hard to make up time".
Ms Snell, 67, and Mr Rolfe, 72, went missing on the day of the July landslip but it was not until nine days later that Avon and Somerset Police alerted colleagues in Dorset that the couple had been traced to the Beaminster area.
