State Highway 25A crosses the region from Kopu to Hikuai, but a huge area of the road has been swept away in a major slip following destructive amounts of rain.
Mayor Len Salt visited the site yesterday with Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty.
"By the time we got up there the crews on site told us that in the previous 24 hours another 60 or 70 metres had dropped away," Salt said.
"It was quite a revelation to see the extent of that and it gave us an idea of the scale of what it's going to take to fix that.
"While we were there, there was more debris falling off the sides down into the drop at the bottom."
He was confident the minister and the government will be stepping in to provide a solution "as soon as possible."
"We can't do without that access."
"So we're looking at is there a way to get through round the side - do another cut - or do we have to have to go all the way around the bottom and around the coast road, which is a very long diversion."
He was unsure if there could be permanent repairs on the same site or whether or a new route round the slip would be needed.
"What I see is something that a bridge would go over - but it would be a big bridge.
"Whether it can be rebuilt in the same place or whether they have to work with DOC to find alternative routes through there, I don't know."
He was hoping for a break in the weather so crews could start repairs on other roads, like the Thames Coast Road (SH25) at Ruamahunga.
Waka Kotahi spokesperson Cara Lauder was also at the site on Thursday and told Checkpoint she was "stunned" at the size of the slip.
Lauder wasn't able to say how long it would take to fix - or whether it might be done by Christmas.
"That was what we were certainly thinking before it did this.
"If we have to build a massive bridge across it though, if it does get to that kind of scale, those things do take a bit longer," she said.
