Dredging underway at Whakatāne Yacht Club

Whakatāne District Council, New Zealand, recently began maintenance dredging of the Whakatāne River in the vicinity of the Whakatāne Yacht Club.

“As part of our management of the Whakatāne Harbour we’re required to maintain a safe navigational channel for all users to access,” the council said in the announcement.

At certain times of the year, parts of the channel can become heavily silted due to sand movement along the river. “We monitor this movement and need to undertake dredging to ensure a safe depth is maintained,” the council added.

The navigational channel runs from the Whakatāne Bar to outside the Whakatāne Yacht Club. Currently the section outside the Whakatāne Yacht Club is extremely shallow and in need of dredging

The council is using a long-reach excavator mounted on a barge to remove the sand which is then being transported to a section in Coastlands where it will be used as land fill.