Boskalis Westminster has just completed the installation of rock armor layers to the new detached Cowes Breakwater.
The final handover of the breakwater to CHC will to take place next month.
As agreed by Cowes Harbor Commissioners following the July 2015 project review, CHC has prioritized the completion and verification of a new tidal model with consultant hydrodynamic engineers ABPmer.
This new ‘overall’ tidal model covers an extensive area including all of the English Channel and parts of the North Sea, which is essential to more accurately simulate a wider range of tidal conditions within the area of interest in the Cowes Harbor and Solent ‘local’ model.
Comprehensive calibration reports for both the ‘overall’ model and the ‘local’ model have been completed; these detail the calibration and verification of the model against actual water levels and currents in multiple locations, both in the regional and local Cowes and Solent areas.
To provide additional assurance the modelling development and calibration reports have and continue to be reviewed and scrutinized by independent experts.
Sedimentation studies
Subsequent to the project review and in support of ABPmer’s July 2015 Sedimentation Report, Cowes Harbor Commission has, under its responsibility as Harbor Authority, committed to continuing to review all evidence and data to improve current understanding of the Cowes Harbor baseline sedimentation budget and its main drivers and sources (local, Solent and south coast environmental changes, natural and man-made interventions).
CHC is therefore set to commence a program of sedimentation sampling and monitoring throughout Cowes Harbor and the River Medina, designed to provide further information and data for ABPmer’s modelling program and also as part of a longer-term sedimentation-monitoring scheme for the harbor.
This monitoring program will combine a comprehensive bathymetric program and long-term sedimentation monitoring that will be used to assist the understanding of the sedimentation system and for the development of a new sustainable dredging management plan for the Medina Estuary.
Next phases of harbor infrastructure
The new ‘local’ tidal model will now be used to optimize the design of the next stages of planned harbor construction; the extension to the Sharpe breakwater, dredging of the new Eastern Channel and the basin for the Homes and Communities Agency proposed new marina in East Cowes.
The current program for all modelling works, design development and reporting still concludes with a timeline completing at the end of April 2016.