Update — 11 November, 10.16 p.m. Colombo: The road has reopened. The Disaster Management Centre said the blocked stretch near the Haliela–Uduwara 6th post has been cleared and traffic restored, Hiru News reported about two hours after the first filing. The update gives no clearing time, does not say who carried out the work, and does not address whether the slope above the road is considered stable. The original report follows.
A major earth slip at Uduwara has brought traffic between Badulla and Bandarawela to a complete standstill, closing a section of the Badulla–Colombo main road on Wednesday evening.
The slip came down near the 6th post in the Uduwara area, blocking the road entirely, the Disaster Management Centre said in a filing carried by Hiru News at 8.25 p.m. Colombo time.
Vehicular movement along the route “has come to a complete standstill,” the Daily Mirror reported 25 minutes later, under the byline of Prasad Rukmal.
The diversion
The Road Development Authority is advising motorists travelling from Badulla towards Colombo, Ella, Wellawaya and Bandarawela to use the Badulla–Hali-Ela–Attampitiya–Bandarawela road instead, until clearing operations are finished.
A mile post or a kilometre post?
The two filings do not agree on where the slip is, in a way worth stating plainly because it affects anyone trying to find it.
The Daily Mirror places it at the “Uduwara 6th Mile Post.” Hiru’s Sinhala text places it at the 6th kilometre post (6 වැනි කිලෝමීටර් කණුව) and locates it in Hali-Ela — which is on the diversion the RDA is recommending, not on the closed stretch.
Six miles and six kilometres are about 3.6km apart on the same road, and a slip inside Hali-Ela would sit differently against that diversion than one outside it. Neither filing gives a grid reference or names the nearest village beyond Uduwara. This article uses the neutral “6th post” in the lede and reports both readings here rather than picking one.
Hiru’s reopening filing refers to the location as the “Haliela–Uduwara 06 post”, pairing both place names but again without specifying mile or kilometre. The discrepancy with the Daily Mirror’s “6th Mile Post” therefore stands unresolved.
The weather behind it
The slip is part of a wider run of ground failure across the hill country this week. The National Building Research Organisation has a Level 1 landslide advisory in force for Badulla district for the 24 hours from Wednesday evening, alongside Colombo, Kalutara and Kandy, with the higher Level 2 covering Kegalle, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura.
The Department of Meteorology expects rainfall above 100mm again on Thursday in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central, Southern and Uva provinces — Badulla and Bandarawela are both in Uva.
In the past three days a landslide split a main road at Wewathenna in Gampola, the Kandy–Colombo road at Kadugannawa was closed over rockfall risk and has since partly reopened, Colombo’s roads flooded for the second time in a week, and the Kotmale and Victoria spill gates were opened. The upcountry railway through Bandarawela was already disrupted by a slip at Heel Oya last week.
Not reported
Neither filing says what time the slip came down, how large it is, or how long clearing is expected to take. Neither reports any casualties, vehicles caught in the slip, or damage to property — and neither states that there were none.
Nothing says whether the RDA, the army or local authorities are doing the clearing, whether machinery is on site, or whether the slope above the road is considered stable. No resident, motorist or local official is quoted, and no estimate is given for when the road will reopen.