HARDWICK, Vt. (AP) – For the second time in almost three weeks a landslide closed a short section of Route 15 Tuesday, slowing traffic and prompting new concerns for the safety of the houses on top of the hill that abuts the road.

Traffic guards rerouted cars as an excavator and bucket loader moved rocks, soil and other detritus off the road. Workers from the Agency of Transportation also spent the day clearing a ditch so water could run freely through a culvert underneath the asphalt.

, said assistant foreman Bill Jewell.

The road had reopened by 6 p.m.

Town officials said Tuesday’s landslide wasn’t as serious as the one on April 18, when trees, rocks and dirt poured onto Route 15 early that morning. But they said they were worried another spill could happen again, further destabilizing the steep hill made mostly of clay with no bedrock to anchor the earth.

“The hill is still in motion,” said Town Manager Dan Hill, adding that before last month no landslides had ever occurred on the hill.

Hill said a geologist examined the site Tuesday, and that he had been told by officials from the Department of Emergency Management that a report requesting state action would be forthcoming.

No date has been set for work to be done on the hill, and because of its composition stabilizing the bank will be difficult, he said. Officials from the department and the transportation agency could not immediately be reached for comment.

Of greatest concern, Hill said, is the safety of the two houses that sit closest to where the hill begins to slope downward.

The back lawn of one those buildings – a bed and breakfast – has already dropped 3 to 4 feet, and the neighboring house is built directly along the landslide’s path, he said.

No one was injured in the landslide. Officials said they would continue to monitor the hill.

AP-ES-05-04-04 1902EDT