Maintenance Dredging at Port of Townsville

Authors: M. Jaditager, J. Lovisa, N. Sivakugan

Abstract:

The Port of Townsville conducts regular annual maintenance dredging to maintain depths of its harbor basin and approach channels for the navigational safety of the vessels against the natural accumulation of marine sediments. In addition to the regular maintenance dredging, the port undertakes emergency dredging in cases where large quantities of sediments are mobilized and deposited in port waters by cyclone or major flood events. The maintenance dredging material derived from the port may be disposed at sea or on land in accordance with relevant state and commonwealth regulations. For the land disposal, the dredged mud slurry is hydraulically placed into containment ponds and left to undergo sedimentation and self-weight consolidation to form fill material for land reclamation. This paper provides an overview of the maintenance dredging at the Port of Townsville and emphasis on maintenance dredging requirements, sediment quality, bathymetry, dredging methods used, and dredged material disposal options.

Keywords: Consolidation, dredged material, maintenance dredging, marine sediments, sedimentation.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1096986

References:

[1] H.J. Taylor, “The history of Townsville harbour 1864 – 1979” Brisbane: Boolarong Publications, 1980,pp.13.
[2] A.W. Pringle, “ The history of dredging in Cleveland Bay, Queensland and its effect on sediment movement and on the growth of mangroves, corals and sea grass” , Department geography, University of Lancaster , UK, 1989.
[3] Port of Townsville “Port of Townsville dredging records - 1968 to 2011”,2011.
[4] E. Wolanski, R. Gibbs, P.Ridd, B.King, K. Hwang, and A. Metha “ Fate of dredge spoil, Cleveland Bay, Townsville”,in Proc. 10th Australian coastal and ocean engineering conference, Auckland, NZ , 1991, pp.66-69.
[5] Port of Townsville “Long term dredging and dredged material disposal management plan”, 2013.
[6] B.K. Berwick, “Recent dredging issues facing the Townsville Port Authority”, in Proc. 12th Australasian coastal and ocean engineering conference, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 442-449.
[7] Port of Townsville “Long term sediments quality monitoring program”, 2010.
[8] Port of Townsville “Marine sediments monitoring- Annual report”, 2013.
[9] Director of Maritime Service, “Notice to Mariners number 608(T) of 2014”, Maritime Safety Queensland, Department of Transport and Main Roads,Queensland government, 2014.