Loading bay fault forces snap closure of SEQ barge terminal
A major southeast Queensland barge terminal will be closed for two weeks to repair a structural fault in the loading bay, forcing hundreds of bay island residents to reroute their trips.
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A major southeast barge terminal, the main port to four Moreton Bay islands, has been closed after faults in the loading bay were detected.
Sealink, which holds the licence to run barges to and from Russell, Macleay, Karragarra and Lamb islands, announced the terminal closure after receiving a report on the faults.
The marine transport operator re-routed all car barge services from the main port at Redland Bay to Cleveland’s Toondah Harbour, adding an extra 15 minutes to barge journeys.
Toondah Harbour is a 15km drive from Redland Bay.
The faults in the loading bay were spotted during a scheduled survey on the Redland Bay infrastructure by an independent engineer.
The service disruptions were announced hours before the barge terminal was closed, with new timetable schedules not released until late this afternoon (May 11).
Sealink general manager in southeast Queensland, Ben Renwick, said repairs were likely to take two weeks with works starting tomorrow (May 12).
He said the works were contained to the mainland barge terminal at Redland Bay and would not affect “walk-on” services to and from the nearby passenger ferry terminal.
“This does not concern any of the barges and is repair work to the land-based infrastructure, which we can only work on at low tides to access the equipment,” Mr Renwich said.
“The repair is preventative, but just takes time. No contracts are affected.
“It will be inconvenient, but we are redirecting services including an inter-island vessel to reduce the pain to our customers.
“It’s 15 minutes longer than a Redland Bay-direct service, but we are using the big boats which are faster.
“We apologise for the inconvenience and the late notice.
“Our team has appointed additional contractors and we are running multiple repair shifts to maximise working around the tide and minimise the length of disruption.”
An inter-island barge service transfer will be available.
Customers were alerted to the changes via text and phone calls on Thursday.
In June last year, Minister for Economic Development Queensland Steven Miles granted Sealink its requests to carry out a range of works for a landing at the Redland Bay barge terminal at Weinam Creek.
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