Inlet wall upgrades to cost $850,000

Attention has turned to Bunbury’s sea walls with work under way to upgrade infrastructure across the city.

An $850,000 project to upgrade Leschenault Inlet’s marine wall is ramping up with the massive project expected to take five months.

The work has closed part of the Frank Buswell Foreshore near the Stirling Street boat ramp.

City of Bunbury engineer and civil operations manager Shaun Millen said the work followed stage one of the project, which saw some of the wall replaced in 2013.

Mr Millen said it was an important project for the city.

“Over the years we’ve had a number of structural assessments done identifying this area through here as the inlet wall is getting to the end of its useful life,” Mr Millen said.

The project will see a 250m section of the marine wall replaced.

It comes as another big project to repair the Marlston Waterfront’s deteriorating sea wall is under way after Bunbury City Council was forced to declare an emergency situation earlier this month.

Mr Millen said the Marlston project had been a slow and difficult process.

“They’ve drilled a number of primary holes, they’ve put in some concrete slurry under the wall and once that’s done we’ll be undertaking the permeating grouting,” he said.

“They should finish everything they need to do to stabilise underneath the footing.

“It’s been a slow and difficult process because of what’s under the ground really, so it’s been a challenging little project.”

The extent of the Marlston project will determine when stage three of the Leschenault Inlet wall is completed.

“Stage three will be done either next financial year or the one after, depending on what happens at Marlston,” Mr Millen said.

Mr Millen said the city’s marine walls were part of an ongoing and important project.

A dolphin spotter is on site for the project with work stopping if a dolphin gets close to the area.

“We’re trying to look after the environment as much as we can, there’s a silk curtain that goes around and controls the amount of silk and what have you that flows into the estuary,” he said.