Harbour dredging to start in August

Lyttelton Port’s channel deepening project will get under way in August when one of the world’s largest dredges – the Fairway – arrives.

Lyttelton Port Company (LPC) was granted resource consent in March 2018 to dredge the harbour shipping channel to increase its draft.

The Lyttelton Harbour shipping channel is going to be dredged to increase its draft.

The 230 metre-long Fairway will collect sand and silt from the seabed of the harbour, as it works to widen the navigation channel by 20 metres and deepen it to allow vessels with a 13.3 metre draft to call at Lyttelton.

The first stage of work will see the Fairway lengthen the channel by 2.5km and will take 11 weeks to complete.

The channel deepening, which will allow bigger ships to access the Port, will provide Canterbury’s importers and exporters the best possible and most-cost effective international shipping solutions.

The initial stage of the dredging programme has been awarded to Netherlands-based contractor Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. – a global operator with more than 100 years’ experience.

In anticipation of the channel deepening, LPC has already implemented the largest environmental monitoring programme ever undertaken for a New Zealand dredging project.

Environment Canterbury is satisfied that LPC’s plans balance what is best for the environment, the community and the growing regional economy.

While the Fairway is hard at work, a plume will be clearly visible from the dredge, but LPC environmental advisor Jared Pettersson says this is a normal aspect of the dredging process on the seafloor.

“The environmental effects of the plume were evaluated during the consent process. It was found any environmental effects would be minimal and short-term as the ecosystem is used to naturally occurring fluctuations in water clarity.

“We have implemented New Zealand’s most robust real-time water quality monitoring system that will ensure the proposed dredging does not result in adverse outcomes for the environment,'' Mr Pettersson says.

LPC achieved a mediated outcome with Ngai Tahu in regards to protecting the environmental and cultural value of Whakaraupō and Koukourārata. As a result, LPC will cease dumping dredge spoil, from a previous consent, at Awaroa/Godley Head, Livingstone Bay, Breeze Bay and Mechanics Bay which are important breeding grounds for kaimoana.

The company will pay Te Rūnanga o Koukourārata and Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke fisheries enhancement funding that will be used on projects to increase mahinga kai within Koukourārata and Whakaraupō (Lyttelton) harbours. There will be strict environmental limits for dredging and dumping spoil.