Fences to stop erosion eating road

THE impact of soil erosion on the Inverloch coastline has spurred an inter-agency group to construct fencing on the beach.
At a drop-in information session recently, the community heard from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Parks Victoria, Regional Roads Victoria, West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority and Bass Coast Shire Council.
As the lead agency, DELWP has been coordinating a plan for the pinch points of coastal erosion at the Cape Paterson-Inverloch Road where it intersects with Surf Parade and also at the Inverloch Surf Life Saving Club.
The eroding edge is almost six metres from the road intersection, where the coastline has retreated 35.6 metres since 2012.
The foreshore next to the surf life saving club has seen 33.5 metres of coastline retreat since 2012, leading to the club’s patrol house to be moved to higher ground earlier this year.
To prevent and ideally grow the sand coastline, the multi-agency working group has decided to build two rows of 1.2m high fencing installed at the two pinch points.
The area will be renourished with sand reconstructing the fore-dune to 1.5m above the current beach level and five metres wide.
Funded by the Bass Coast Shire Council and the Victorian Government, detailed design of the fencing is currently underway with on-ground works to commence in either February or March.
Wet sand fencing was successfully used at a coastal erosion site at Port Fairy in 2014 and has successfully retained sand in the area to allow for revegetation.
South Gippsland Conservation Society president Dave Sutton, who attended the drop-in, said the wet sand fencing was a short term measure that would protect the existing infrastructure, the surf club patrol house and the road.
“The society has received funding from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable fund to undertake a Bass Coast Climate Resilience project which melds in with what is proposed by DELWP,” he said.
“The society’s project is expected to further inform coastline planning to include soft engineering, whether it is revegetation options, and look at the natural value that the dunes provide.”

Collaboration: Bass MLA Jordan Crugnale (left) dropped into a recent multi-agency information session about Inverloch coastal soil erosion hosted by Department of Environment, Land, Environment, Water and Planning program manager Carmel Henderson (right) and from left, Parks Victoria area chief ranger Gerard Delaney, DELWP coastal projects officer Sam Monkiewicz and Bass Coast Shire Council coast and bushland coordinator Derek Hibbert.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Dec 18 2018. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry