Our waterways are open for business and pleasure!
Over the last 18 months we’ve invested $6.5 million into maintaining safe navigational access for the Gold Coast waterways.
GCWA Chief Executive Officer, Hal Morris, said “Our waterways are vital for the city’s economic prosperity and social well-being. An important part of our role is maintaining safe navigational access. With that commitment, we’ve completed dredging of 10 channels in the Broadwater, Tipplers Passage; Biggera Creek, Labrador Channel, Cabbage Tree Point, and Jacobs Well.” GCWA has an approved Waterways Management Program which is a 1+3 year rolling program of works framed under GCWA’s 10-year Waterways Management Strategy.
“With the rapid increase in recreational boating activity on our waterways, the need for dredging is always present,” Mr Morris said. He said at all times, GCWA secured the statutory environmental approvals required to dredge Gold Coast navigation channels. “Throughout the dredging program, environmental controls and monitoring also takes place. It can take up to 12 months to secure these approvals.”
For 2016-17 and 2017-18, GCWA has been allocated over $18 million for dredging and other projects across all Gold Coast waterways including:
- nine significant dredging projects to improve navigational access
- a new dredged sediment management facility at Coomera, that the marine industry forecasts will deliver a $100 million boost annually. In relation to the Broadwater, Mr Morris said the GCWA Project Management Office ensured the channels were dredged to sufficient depth and breadth for safe navigational access.
“The Broadwater is a dynamic shallow estuarine environment that we monitor by undertaking routine hydrographic surveys of the navigation channels.” Dredging projects proposed for the Broadwater in 2017-18 will target the Canaipa Passage, the Main Channel South and the Coomera River.
Mr Morris said that GCWA is committed to maintaining safe navigational access in Gold Coast waterways now and into the future.
