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Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) needs to get on with securing the Haast Highway, which is at risk of slipping into the sea, Westland District Mayor Helen Lash says.
The area, known as the Epitaph Cutting underslip, is just south of the Knights Point viewpoint, where State Highway 6 clings to a cliff, the slip falling away to the sea about 300m below.
Mrs Lash said it was a lifeline for the entire West Coast, and a "grave concern".
It is something already acknowledged in new funding to NZTA in this year’s Budget, but the prospect of the road slipping away is worrying West Coast community leaders.
In the past decade, the state highway through South Westland has been severed several times, sometimes for weeks at a time, severely impacting the communities along its path and the entire South Island tourist trail.
"It has sat for some time as it is [but] some severe weather can restart it at any time ... it’s a lifeline road," Mrs Lash said on Friday.
Local communities relied on it for their industry and services, as well as the tourist economy.
"I wish to goodness that NZTA would acknowledge it and do something."
Westland had "several roads of concern" at present but State Highway 6 at Knights Point was the most urgent, Mrs Lash said.
West Coast Regional Council chairman Peter Haddock, on the West Coast regional transport committee for over 15 years, said the slip had been on the committee’s agenda for years.
It was particularly a problem because there was no alternative route past that section.
"I don’t think there are many options but retreat back. This area does need attention. We can’t just wait until the road drops out. It’s a major tourism route."
It risked the region getting "a bad name" and being eliminated as a risk-free option for visitors and organised tourist operators coming through.
This had certainly been seen previously with natural events severing the road for days or even months on end further north at the Fox Hills, Mount Hercules, the Waiho and Whanganui bridges and towards Lake Ianthe.
Cr Haddock said the matter of route security had been raised at South Island regional transport sector meetings.
"I do know they’re stretched for funding but you eventually have to make a plan."
In the latest budget announced in May, the Government put $11m towards land transport resilience work on the West Coast, including "remote monitoring and stabilisation" of the Epitaph Cutting underslip.
NZTA said plans for remote monitoring and early warning systems at Epitaph Cutting would provide "real-time data" on various key metrics at the site.
Funding set aside in the Budget for road resilience for the West Coast state highway network was to address various vulnerable points in the network, including the Knights Point area, it said.
— Brendon McMahon, Local democracy reporter