Armidale mayor Simon Murray said they were taken on a tour of the region by council staff and met with some of the local residents at the Lower Creek RFS Shed.

"I Would have to say that most of the residents accepted that this is beyond the capabilities of our council," he said.

"Adam Marshall made a comment on the news recently that the photographs don't do it justice, and I agree with that. It is hard to get those photographs to convey the sense of just how it is.

"When we looked down to areas on The Big Hill, where the water going over the edge of the road is not quite vertical, but it is a very steep drop. It makes you look and wonder how that section of road can be stabilised."

Cr Murray said the RMS provided a Goetechnical expert whose team went down the road.

"I haven't read the report yet, but I understand when they first set off they thought it wasn't a big problem," he said.

"But the further they went down the more their concern increased about how to stabilise the whole area and build a decent road.

"We haven't seen the full estimate yet, but it is going to cost many millions of dollars."

Cr Murray said he welcomed Barnaby's offer of sending the Army onto Kempsey Road.

"They do have skills in building roads in pretty rough areas, so they could be a great advantage," he said.

"How do you stabilise the hillside though? That's the other question.

"You can build the road, but if all the hillside above it is unstable ..."

Cr Murray said there were times after graders cleared the road during the afternoon, that another slip meant local residents going down had to negotiate rocks and debris.