30cm headache in Shute Harbour restoration

Some work on Shute Harbour has been paused as designers grapple with pile movement.

The Shute Harbour reconstruction has encountered a hurdle as piles have shifted up to 300mm. Photo: Contributed

JUST thirty centimetres of movement has the potential to cause big headaches for workers on the Shute Harbour redevelopment project.

Three rows of piles have been placed at Shute Harbour, one on land and two in the water.

Geofabric panels have been stitched together and are being placed around the piles before rock is laid on top to form the seawall.

However, the movement of the rocks has caused a shift in some of the piles of up to 300mm.

In yesterday’s ordinary council meeting in Bowen, Whitsunday Regional Council disaster recovery project director Trevor Williams said the shift was about 200mm more than the allowable tolerance.

Mr Williams said the council would work with contractors and the designers of the seawall to work on a solution.

This could include adjusting how the rocks are placed or bracing the piles with a separate truss bridge-like structure that connects the third row of piles with the first.

Movement in the rock wall caused the piles to move. Picture: Supplied

However, if the movement stops altogether, the designers could also choose to widen the headstock, or part of the foundations of the building, that will be placed on the piles later in construction.

Mr Williams said it was not yet clear whether the pile movement could add time and money to the project as options were being investigated.

“Right now, we’ve stopped any further seawall construction just so (the designers) can have a look at what’s happened with the bits that we’ve done,” he said.

Three quarters of the funding for the seawall reconstruction comes from state and federal Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements funding.

The remaining 25 per cent is funded through local, state and federal government commitments.

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Mr Williams was optimistic the project would still be delivered within budget and on time, but said the next few days would be critical in coming up with a solution.

“In the $51.5 million that was budgeted at the time that we awarded the contract, there was a few million in contingencies,” he said.

“We’ve got to work out a solution, but we can’t take months to come up with it, that’s our challenge.”

The project is currently operating a week ahead of schedule and is set to be completed in June 2021.

Mr Williams said the council had also received a lot of interest for the terminal building and was exploring an expansion of the tourist area because of the demand.

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