The furthermost rocks, weighing up to 30 tonnes, were lifted into place at the Shell Cove boat harbour breakwall on Tuesday, marking the end of the first stage of construction for the $23 million project.
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The breakwall, which will form the northern barrier of the harbour, now extends 467 metres into the ocean.
However, Shell Cove development director Glenn Colquhoun said there was still much more work to be done to complete the platform.
“This is now constructed to the end, as far as it will go into the ocean, but the next stage will be placing the larger rock on the upper levels,” he said.
“We’re standing about two metres above sea level, the final levels will be another four or five metres above this.
“The reason we do that is to give the contractor a large platform, so we can now move back and start placing larger pieces of rock and concrete.”
“Overall, there will be about 400,000 tonnes of rock being places to create this breakwater and groyne.”
The groyne – a shorter breakwall for the harbour to the south – will be 282 metres when complete.
A 4.6 metre concrete pathway will be built on top of the rocks, to allow for public access.
On hand to watch the furthermost rocks being lifted into place, Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba said the breakwall was the first major Shell Cove asset that would be “of great benefit to the community”.
“I can’t wait until we can let the water in to the harbour in 2019 and start leasing out those berths and I can’t wait until the dividend (expected to be $70 million) is returned to the people of Shellharbour,” she said.
“This is the biggest project any local government in Australia has undertaken.”
The two rock walls – the breakwater and groyne – which will channel water into the harbour are due to be complete by early 2019, which is when the harbour will be filled.
Also checking out the ocean end of the breakwall, Shellharbour councillor John Murray said the structure showed just how much the harbour project was taking shape.
“Behind me, is where the water will go through and the rocks you can see is where the marina, town centre and supermarket will be,” he said.
“People will be able to come out here, see boats coming in and just enjoy.”