The $2.5m project to secure a rockfall-prone cliff face above a stretch of State Highway 3 where a woman was killed last year is finished. New Plymouth woman Joy Thompson, 74, died last March when boulders crashed into the car she was travelling in just south of Pio Pio. Her elderly sister, who was driving, escaped with minor injuries.

Thompson's death prompted harsh criticism of the NZ Transport Agency for allegedly not doing enough to make the stretch of SH3 safe despite repeated warnings of the rockfall hazards.

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