Salty Creek restoration using ProTube® geotextile tubes

The project

Richmond Valley Council on the far north coast of NSW was looking at effective methods of restoring a lagoon from ocean inundation to its previous freshwater condition. Over the years ocean encroachment has occurred along the old drainage channel, now known as Salty Creek, and turned a previously pristine freshwater lagoon into a salt lagoon.

A Sydney-based specialist in the management of coastal and estuarine dredging issues was asked to provide a design solution.

The challenges

The idea was simple: block each end of the creek and infill the old drainage channel. However, the actual implementation was more of a problem, with very difficult access into an environmentally sensitive coastal area.

In order to complete the work, the dredge had to be dragged some 3 kms along the beach to the work site, and then nearly 5000m3 of fill material needed to be transported and placed at each end of the channel, and appropriate structures needed to be constructed to contain the filled section of the creek.

To complicate matters further, the weather was poor with 18 wet days of the three weeks on site. The creek was flowing which made deployment of all materials very difficult, however the contractor was able to get the project completed using ProTube coastal geosynthetic tubes from Global Synthetics to build the containment structures.

Our solution

The ProTube® geotextile tube was selected as the appropriate solution to form the ends of the channel. These custom tubes are ideal as they are filled with sand via a method of slurry delivery that was provided by the dredge on site.

Manufactured from a permeable fabric that allows the sand contained within the tube to achieve maximum density, they are proven to provide long-life performance.

The project was completed in a short period of time and has restored a unique coastal lagoon back to a habitat that is welcoming for a wide variety of local wildlife.

ProTube® geotextile tubes have proven themselves in a wide variety of similar coastal works and dewatering applications involving environmental and industrial processes. ProTube® is fabricated to suit specific applications, offering high strength factory seam strength and a range of customised sizes to suit your project. Take a look at the specifications online or contact our team for more information.