Safe, ongoing access to the Gold Coast Seaway and adjacent navigation channels will be underpinned by a $6.3 million dredging campaign which will be underway within weeks.

The dredging contract has been awarded to a south-east Queensland firm, Riverside Marine.

The Seaway is the gateway which connects the Gold Coast’s inland coastal waterways network to the open ocean.

This dredging project will remove sand which has built up near the entrance to the Seaway and in the adjacent North and South Channels.

The result will be improved and safer access for boaties to waterways destinations, especially small and medium vessels travelling through the Seaway.

The project will also ensure ongoing access for commercial vessels including trawlers, the local whale-watching fleet and superyachts coming in for maintenance and servicing. These industries combined are worth tens of millions of dollars to the Gold Coast every year and support thousands of jobs.

It’s the first time in over a decade that dredging has needed to be done near the Seaway entrance.

The campaign will remove over 420,000 m³ from the Seaway and adjacent channels – which would be enough sand to fill Cbus stadium at Robina to a height of 25 storeys.

Whilst the Sand Bypass System at the Spit has done a great job of keeping the Seaway open by transporting sand north to South Stradbroke Island each and every year, storm activity has brought some of that sand back in near the Seaway entrance over time, so we need to dredge the area.

The dredging campaign should be finished by January 2022.

GCWA is planning to deposit the dredged sediment offshore from Narrowneck, Surfers Paradise and South Stradbroke Island beaches and Moondarewa Spit at The Spit to support coastal protection from storm surges.