WHARF WHISPERS – DARWIN CITY WATERFRONT APPEARS

MONTH BY MONTH

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September 2006

When enlarged, the image left, and the one below, will give you an idea of the large tidal range that must be worked around during seawall construction. The first, early morning image, shows that before the addition of wave wall units, the rock armour has very little freeboard at the top of the tide, while the new earthworks, centre left, are barely exposed.




This image, taken the following afternoon on the low tide, reveals a vastly different scene; even the swimming lagoon pipework is exposed by the receding water. The water trapped behind the seawall, centre mid-right in the enlarged image, is in the new swimming lagoon.

Our (H&R's) excavator, Deven, is seen here placing the last of the rock armouring around the outlet pipes for the new stormwater drainage. These pipes provide an outlet for runoff collected from McMinn St and Kitchener Drive; all the water is filtered through a separator pit, immediately behind the rockwall, to ensure that debris and contaminants do not enter the harbour.




Placement of armour rock is an on going task; there are still thousands of cubic metres to go! The task is made a little easier with specialist machinery like this long reach excavator, which has a double dipper arm to give even more reach.