THE BARGE IS OFF SHORE AND THE TRANSPORTING OF THE SAND HAS STARTED....

The building of the second runway at the Sunshine Coast airport has created a lot of attention in the community. Not only is there a disruption for cars on the David Low Way, there are very changed conditions along the sand dunes. All the shrubs and ground covers were completely taken out. It looks very raw and ugly with flags, machines, pipes and big construction security fences.

Yesterday the word had got round that the big sand barge had anchored off shore and the transporting of the sand to the airport had commenced. The community was curious! I was no exception! My afternoon outing was a trip to the beach to check out the next stage of the building of the second runway.

I was not disappointed - there was a very large impressive green barge sitting a little way off shore. The vessel is actually called the Dredging International Vessel - The Nile River. There appeared to be a fixed floating work station located not far from The Nile.



An engineer working for the International Dredging Company kindly brought us up to speed on details:

• The dredging vessel carries over 11,000 cubic metres of sand for each trip.
• 1.5 million cubic metres of sand is being dredged from the Spitfire Realignment Channel in Moreton Bay and then carried up the Coast to Marcoola.
• The dredging is planned to be completed in October before the next turtle nesting season.

The pipeline is very secure in the ocean and on the beach for the transportation of sand under the road to the airport location.



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It is a big project and I was definitely not the only interested sticky beak checking out the action on Marcoola Beach.



The construction of the second runway means more flights and tourists flowing into the Sunshine Coast.

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Cheers

Have a happy day.

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