A historical manufacturing area along the intertidal zone was required to be returned to its natural form and function. In order to undertake this work consideration of the impact to the sensitive marine environment was required to be assessed. If not, a detrimental outcome was likely to occur related to hyper salinity, Acid Sulphate Soil (ASS) generation, odour impacts and creation of dust and salt. The area is a site of ecological importance to not only the marine life present at the site, but also for migratory bird species that seasonally visit the site.
A number of earthen sea walls had been constructed as part of the salt manufacturing process. Removal of these had to be managed in order to allow the natural tidal influences to occur and return large areas to directly connect to the marine environment. A staged approach was undertaken, starting with assessment and modelling of the system, prior to forming a Remediation Options Assessment (ROA). In turn, the outcome of the ROA lead to implementation and on-site works execution followed by monitoring to determine project success.
The main disciplines undertaken included the following:
- Site characterisation and assessment
- Computational modelling
- Remediation Options Assessment (ROA)
- Financial feasibility
- Remediation Design
