News in Photos: ‘Charles Darwin’ at Work

Work on Brisbane Airport’s New Parallel Runway has reached an important milestone after the final load of sand to form the base was pumped onto the site over the weekend.

Dredging began on June 4 and favorable weather over the last six months allowed the Belgian dredge ‘Charles Darwin’ to pump ashore nearly 11 million cubic meters of sand from the dredge site at Middle Banks adjacent to the main shipping channel in Moreton Bay.

It has pumped an average of 70,000 cubic meters onto the site each 24 hour cycle – which would otherwise have taken a convoy of heavy trucks stretching 126 kilometers to deliver each and every day.

In total, the dredge has made 467 trips and the final sand pump marks the beginning of the end of Phase One of the $1.3 billion project, which began in August 2012 with the felling, clearing and mulching of casuarina trees on the 360 hectare site.

The mulch was mixed with topsoil and has been stockpiled on site for use in the final landscaping of the new runway.

Here are the latest photos of the new parallel runway for Brisbane Airport:

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Dredging Today Staff