Maintenance dredging that will widen and restore safe navigation depths to the Point Grey Channel – the waterway linking the Peel Inlet, Dawesville Channel and Harvey Estuary – is about to begin any time now, reports the WA Department of Transport.
DoT Coastal Infrastructure General Manager, Steve Jenkins, said that dredging was vital for continued safe access for recreational and commercial craft through the waterway.
“ The $675,000 project will take three months to complete and see approximately 13,000 cubic meters of sand taken from the channel, ” Mr Jenkins said. “ The dredged material, to be pumped through a series of floating and submerged pipes, has been approved to be deposited in the Peel Inlet 600 meters north east of the eastern end of the channel .”
According to DoT, the works will be carried out by the 18 meter cutter suction dredge ‘Mudlark I’, equipped with a 60 meter floating pipeline marked with orange buoys equipped with flashing lights.
An additional barge will also be located approximately 600 meters east of the Harvey Channel, connected to floating pipeline. This area will be delineated with yellow marker buoys, equipped with flashing yellow lights.
The last dredging in this area, also known as the Zig Zag Channel, was completed in 2003.