Pedestrian Bridge 

This has been a frustratingly long process due to the complexities surrounding the legal obligations and the requirement to obtain detailed costings from numerous specialist contractors to complete the bridge to the correct design specification.

Discussions are ongoing with the consultants involved in construction to date and the Shire are very conscious of the amount of time that has lapsed and the likely perception that little or nothing is happening to complete the bridge and open it to the public. 

The list of outstanding works is long and in many instances not straight forward. Whilst the bridge may appear structurally complete, there are things such as railings and navigation lights that need to be installed to the appropriate Australian standards and signed off as such before the Shire can allow members of the public to use it.

The Shire have engaged local consulting engineers to prepare detailed specifications for use in tenders and quotation requests. These specifications were 95% complete by the end of last year and the remaining 5% is currently dependent on recommendations from specialist design engineers. It is nevertheless hoped the Shire will be in a position to instruct contractors to start works early in 2011.

Perimeter fence and shade cloth

Following due process in relation to the requirement for dust maintenance, the Shire recently instructed a local contractor to repair the fence to a sufficient standard to retain the shade cloth still in situ.  This is the first stage of the process.  It is hoped that the shade cloth currently being used elsewhere can be recycled to replace the missing sections at Port Geographe and render the fence suitable for dust suppression.

Water quality monitoring

The Artificial Water Body Management Plan (AWBMP) has been modified in accordance with previous consent orders issued by SAT.  One of the requirements of the AWBMP is to monitor water quality in the canals and report the results to the Shire and the Department of Transport.  The Shire have sought advice on this issue from the Office of the Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) who are currently assessing the AWBMP with particular emphasis on water quality. 

Jetty Licences for stages 3 & 4

The Department of Transport have informed us that an inspection of the canals in the above stages has been undertaken and that there are no known navigation hazards in relation to the maximum 12 metre powerboat size intended for those waters.

Residents in those areas are now permitted to apply and develop jetties in accordance with the approved mooring plans available at the Department of Transport website  www.transport.wa.gov.au

In the absence of navigation marks, lighting and clearance signs on the bridge currently, mariners will need to take care transiting through the bridge.