Flinders Ports announced that South Australia’s Adelaide Outer Harbor Channel will undergo a project to remove 1.55 million cubic metres of material from the shipping channel and place it 30km offshore.
That volume is about half the amount of material that was removed from Outer Harbor in the 2005 Channel Deepening project.
Vincent Tremaine, CEO of Flinders Port Holdings said that this project is very important to South Australia’s economy.
He explained that: “The Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal is the only container terminal in South Australia. Without widening the channel to accommodate these new larger vessels, containerised trade and cruise shipping will omit Adelaide from their shipping calls. This will be an economic disaster with exports decimated, imported products increasing in cost and major job losses both directly at the port but with far greater flow on impacts as businesses close, downsize or move interstate.”
South Australia is the only capital city in Australia that does not have a port that can accommodate larger ships. In fact, in 2014, the port saw 37 ships exceed the design width of the channel and in 2017, the number increased to 312.
A comprehensive Dredge Management Plan will be used to provide a clear plan for the monitoring and management of potential dredging impacts. The plan will be developed jointly with the EPA.
“Testing has demonstrated the material is not contaminated and meets national standards for placement at sea. Sea disposal is common practise in numerous regions around the world, including a number of Australian States, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom,” Flinders Ports noted.
The works are expected to begin on Autumn 2018, thus avoid dredging in summer when seagrass is more susceptible to damage from turbidity impacts.
