Member for Swansea Garry Edwards has welcomed today’s announcement from Minister Humphries (Natural Resources Land and Water) and Minister Gay (Roads and Freight) that the successful tender for the major dredging project of Swansea Channel has been awarded to Neumann Dredging Pty Ltd.
“ This announcement is the culmination of three years of consistent lobbying of the State Government on behalf of the people of the electorate of Swansea not only by myself, but by several community groups, including the Boat Owner’s Association ,” Mr Edwards said.
“ This forms part of the NSW Government’s commitment to maintain safe boating by providing reliable navigation through Swansea Channel, a commitment I believe that was borne out of the Swansea Dredging initiative.
“Periodic maintenance dredging will take place once certain trigger points have been reached and this will be monitored by Crown Lands and NSW Maritime.
“This $2.5 million project has been jointly funded through NSW Trade and Investment Crown Lands and Transport NSW and is one that the community has been waiting on for the last 50 years ,” he said.
“ This major dredging program will reflect the findings of the most recent report into the dredging of Swansea Channel and will deliver a navigable Channel of 60 metres in width, 3.5 metres in depth and see the removal of 100,000 cubic metres of sand to be pumped to Blacksmiths Beach as part of the beach’s dune stabilisation and regeneration project.
“The Blacksmiths Beach regeneration and renourishment project will be undertaken with the guidance of the Bahtabah Local Aboriginal Land Council and the NSW Soil Conservation Service,” Mr Edwards said.
“ It is anticipated that the dredging operation will start mid-October and be completed before Christmas 2014.
“This is just one more major initiative that will have commenced under my watch as the Member for Swansea and I am extremely proud to have commenced this initiative with the previous Minister for Lands Katrina Hodgkinson some three years ago and to have been part of the initiative’s development and finally to see it become a reality.”