Georgia to Russia road blocked due to landslide.
 

Anyone wanting to go Georgia to Russia through the only road crossing. Don't bother for the next couple of weeks. A landslide has blocked the road. 2 weeks to clear it. Info given to us 20/5/14

Maybe 2 months.

Can confirm - still blocked today and no idea when it'll be open again. Looks like it'll be a while to me...

Its a massive landslide ... not a little one. Hard to see how with no equipment preparation time, they can move this much earth in 2 weeks.

Expect it to be much longer than that before it reopens:

http://dfwatch.net/wp-content/upload...17_Cropped.jpg


To give you some idea of scale, here is a closer pic of the wall of earth next to full sized lorries: http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2922/1...f4b1d5de_z.jpg

Totally agree it WILL take a long time. Piles of wet mud, rock etc are difficult to deal with at the best of times, but that lot is Epic ! It will no doubt keep moving too as it dug into. Not a straight forward job of big diggers and big trucks. And where are they going to put it all? Its all got to be moved out somewhere. Takes me a day to empty my compost heap :rofl:

This is bad news for travellers in that direction for sure........until the winter possibly ?

Some jaw dropping pics here ... you can see how much material has come down ... Its come down all the way from Glacier level to the roadway ... the glacier basically broke off and took millions of tons of earth with it.

ЖЖ Сухуми სოხუმი cyxymu - спасательные работы в Дарьяльском ущелье

Its already 2 weeks since it happened. So initial estimates of two or three weeks will drag on ... they will probably still be saying 2 or 3 weeks in a months time

jeez! that's a lot of sxxx to move, that's going to take months/years to shift. very dangerous work because as you clear away from the bottom it could slip some more. That's millions of tons of mud by the looks of it. Easier to build a new road!!

FYI - was up at the landslide on the weekend.

1. There is no possibility to build a new road - the mountains dictate that.
2. Work continues to create a path through and the answer is the same "two or three weeks" that was given right after the slide.
3. Lots of discussions re opening the pass via Shatili, but have my concerns about that.
4. This is not about lack of effort - as the pictures show, the landslide was a biggie.

Here is a link to the latest press - "a few days" is not very conclusive

Temporary road to be opened in Dariali | Environment | Democracy & Freedom Watch

Darial Gorge might be open by the 13th June
 

Please read this link Darial Gorge might be Unblocked on Friday which says the road might be open by the 13th June which is great news and if anyone else can confirm this would be appreciated.

if they manage that it will be under a month, that is a staggering achievement

Cant see that myself, i think if travellers are still stuck in Georgia and are waiting for this to be cleared then by the time they clear it fully then they would have stayed long enough to be entiled to a Georgian passport:innocent:

This just out ... they have just opened some sort of temporary track over the mudslide today.

Temporary road opened through Georgia’s Dariali Gorge - Trend.Az

Maia at Greenhouse hostel in Tbilisi just emailed me and said that the road is open for cars and bikes.

If someone does go this way soon can they confirm they crossed this route as maybe they will start/stop access as they clear it so it is only open for a short time?

I might be heading this way late in the year