The Nerang River Entrance Project
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The Nerang River Entrance is the estuary linking the Gold Coast's Broadwater (and in turn the Nerang River and other smaller waterways) with the South Pacific Ocean at the northern end of the Gold Coast in south-east Queensland.
This $40 million Project was funded by the Government and the dredging works were a major subcontract carried out by Neumann Dredging Company. The work consisted of three major activities, production dredging (north channel, south channel and basin), opening the new entrance and closing the old entrance.
Four dredges from the dredging fleet were used: two 350 series dredges, one 300 series and one 250 series. The 350 series dredges were the major production machines in the channels and basin while the smaller dredges assisted during the critical operations at opening of the new entrance and closure of the old entrance. Dredging was on a 24hrs per day, 6 days per week basis. Average production rates for the 350 series were 450m3/hr and for the 300 series, 300m3/hr.
A unique Sand By-Pass system was also an integral part of the project and this was carried out by others.
The Project started in April 1984 and was completed by May 1986 and during this time 4,500,000m3 of sand was dredged.