Great LNG wall links up

Some of the official party inspect a section of the bund wall.

David Sparkes

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THE bund wall enclosing the land reclamation area at Fisherman’s Landing was closed yesterday, with the two ends of the wall “meeting in the middle” almost two weeks ahead of schedule.

More than 20 million tonnes – or close to 15,000 Olympic swimming pools full – of dredging material will eventually be deposited into the bunded area, creating an extension to the port precinct in the Western Basin.

Gladstone Ports Corporation CEO Leo Zussino said the wall closure was the first major milestone for the Western Basin Master Plan.

“It will be the most important port industrial precinct on the east coast of Australia in 10 years time,” he said.

Serving the immediate needs of staging LNG construction and production, the project is funded by the four LNG industry proponents: GLNG, QGC, Arrow Energy and APLNG. The port extension will cover an area of some 300 hectares or the equivalent more than 1400 football fields.

The bund wall has been built up over seven months with “literally thousands” of truckloads of stone transported from a quarry in the GSDA to the wall by contractor Abigroup. Meanwhile, an investigation is continuing into the death of an Abigroup employee at the quarry site in June.

Plans are in place to convert part of the bund wall to an access road enabling recreational fishers to access deepwater boat ramps in The Narrows.

The Gladstone Ports Corporation and Curtis Island Ferries will be running free public boat tours of the area from late August.

BUND WALL FACTS

8.5 kilometres long

300 hectares in area

Can contain 20 million cubic metres of dredging material

Cost $82.5 million