Port Macquarie Southern Breakwall Repair

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The NSW Government is delivering major improvements to maritime infrastructure and facilities statewide, to help the boating and wider community safely access, use and navigate our inland and coastal waters.

Port Macquarie Breakwall Upgrade

Latest news

December 2023 - critical repair work on the Port Macquarie Southern Breakwall

Transport for NSW is committed to delivering critical repair work on the Port Macquarie Southern Breakwall.

Ongoing issues in getting access to the site for construction have resulted in a delay in our plans to publish the redesign of the project and issue a tender for the work. 

As we have not yet been able to issue the tender, we do not anticipate construction will commence before mid-2024.

Transport for NSW is continuing to work with businesses and stakeholders in the area to resolve these issues. 

We will keep the community updated with our progress.

Project information

Background

The Port Macquarie breakwalls were installed to provide a safe navigable boat entrance and maintain the current river mouth entrance.

The Port Macquarie breakwall was built over a period of 40 years with completion in 1939. The last major maintenance was carried out on the head of the breakwall  in 2014.  

As part of the project early investigations, including underwater assessments and scans shows the southern breakwall is in need of extensive repair works. The rock has settled and shifted over time, creating voids which compromise the effectiveness and stability of the structure.

About the project

The NSW Government is funding a proposal to repair the southern breakwall at Port Macquarie. We have developed a refined concept design which includes:

  • repairing 600 metres of the breakwall along the river section
  • completing maintenance of the breakwall head with minimal change to the footprint
  • installing a new five-metre-wide footpath along the majority of the structure’s length. This excludes the last 30 metres at the head of the breakwall, where the current footprint and width will stay the same.
  • Installing two new stair accesses to the NRMA Holiday Park, and a new access ramp at the seaward end of the Holiday Park
  • Installing safety fencing along the southern side of path and a kerb along the northern side of the path
  • Installing new lighting on the shared user path
  • Installing new seating areas and accessible viewing platforms
  • Landscaping the area with over 6000 plants and 43 mature replacement trees.

An updated concept design will be available on the project website soon.

What's happening now?

Following release of the Submissions Report in November, and the re-submission of the finalised Review of Environmental Factors and project plans, Transport for NSW  has obtained approval to proceed with the Port Macquarie Southern Breakwall Repair project.

In May 2023, the project advised that there were not successful tenders for the construction of the project and would review the project design.

Transport for NSW has completed our review of the project design which we will publish shortly.

Once we have a date for going back out to tender, we will update our project website.

Next steps

  • Award the tender for the work
  • Start construction

Transport for NSW acknowledges the significance of the painted rocks along the southern breakwall to the Port Macquarie community. To preserve this part of the community’s history as much as possible, we have created a virtual gallery, and invite you to virtually walk this vibrant trail - explore and download images of your favourites here.

 

Community information

Fact sheets

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Community updates

Project documents

Some documents on this page may not comply with accessibility requirements (WCAG). If you are having trouble accessing information in these documents, please contact us.

Project notifications

Reports

Contact us

For more information contact the project team:

Phone: 1800 571 311

Email:portmacquariebreakwall@transport.nsw.gov.au

Related information

Maritime projects
On this page you can find all Maritime projects related to Maritime property and commercial, environmental and ferry wharf upgrade programs.

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