The City of Rockingham, Western Australia, recently started dredging works at the Bent Street navigation channel, Safety Bay.
According to the Department of Transport WA, dredging works at Bent Street began in March and will take approximately eight weeks, with completion by June 2022.
Before dredging, the city needed to complete land based excavation of the Tern Bank sandbar, which was successfully wrapped up earlier in February.
Dredging of the seabed between the existing navigation channel and the Bent Street Boat Ramp is required to maintain safe formal navigable depth to the recreational boating community.
These works are being carried out using CGC Dredging’s on-water cutter suction dredge Mudlark I (specs: 17.92m x 4.82m), equipped with a 40-metre floating pipeline.
The dredged material will be piped along the ocean side of Tern Bank sandbar to the Carlisle Street boat ramp where it will be stockpiled before being transported to the city’s landfill facility for re-use.
As reported, the city will undertake the navigation channel dredging in accordance with state agency environmental approvals and conditions for works within the marine park.
These works are essential to the ongoing maintenance of the navigation channel and meeting safety needs of boat owners by maintaining safe formal navigation to the deeper waters of Warnbro Sound.