Through 2013 or so, Caltrans was discussing two options for dealing with the slide: the rockshed (now under construction, sort of) versus the (much more expensive) tunnel. Here's a document that compares the two, along with the "what if we did nothing?" option. Salamanders are mentioned in passing, btw.
Ferguson Slide Permanent Restoration Project (January, 2014)
By spring of 2015 the rockshed option had been selected, a steel net had been draped over the slope to help contain individual falling rocks, and a fleet of dump trucks was hauling away slide debris to prepare the site.
Caltrans alters project that will restore road to Yosemite (May, 2015)
About as soon as the area had been cleared, work appeared to stop. Word on the street was that the engineers hadn't found bedrock where they expected it, so they'd have to come up with a new plan for anchoring the rockshed in place. I haven't been able to find anything online to confirm or disconfirm that. In late 2015 there were a couple of small slides that took down most of the steel netting. I remember seeing a few stories that blamed the new slides for the work stoppage, but work had actually stopped months earlier.
Later, maybe in 2017 or 2018, I noticed the big concrete blocks with the machine gun barrels (probably not really) sticking out. I didn't happen to go through the area to see those being built. I'm guessing they're test bores, or anchors, or tests of what kind of anchors
won't work. As calberry says, not much has changed in the last year or two. I do occasionally see workers and equipment, but mostly near the north gate. I have no idea what they're doing, and can only hope they know.