 Lakes Entrance Bypass
Lakes Entrance Sand Bypassing
Lakes Entrance, Victoria, is situated around a man made ocean entrance.
The entrance provides access to Bass Straight for a large commercial and
recreational fishing fleet.
The entrance is situated on a high energy coastline and has a significant
bar.
Transfer Station
Slurry Systems, in conjunction with Gippsland Ports, have engineered and
installed a sand bypassing system to collect sand from within and outside
the entrance and pump it back to the ocean.
The system comprises a series of submarine and land pipelines and a
transfer station. Sand collected by conventional dredging is pumped to the transfer station before being boosted through a
discharge pipeline and back into the ocean.
The transfer station is electrically powered with full instrumentation to
record sand volumes. The transfer station is unmanned and remotely operated
and monitored.
Sandshifter
Initial Trial
The initial trial was conducted from 2000 to 2002 with 375,000 tonnes of
sand bypassed. The system was deemed a cost effective solution to reduce
sand entering the internal channels and building up on the offshore bar. The
system was scheduled for permanent installation utilising electric power.
Current Situation
In response to a significant degradation of the offshore and internal
channels it was decided to bring forward the sandshifter installation
program.
Diesel powered equipment utilising the sandshifter was commissioned in
September 2007. The equipment is located on the eastern side of the
entrance. Sand is captured and pumped to the electric transfer station for
disposal through the ocean discharge pipeline.
The equipment comprises a diesel powered water pump, diesel powered dredge
pump and an 18m sandshifter unit. The system is averaging 5,000 cu.m of
bypassed sand per week.
Future Installations
The current diesel powered unit is scheduled for upgrade to electric power
with an additional unit on the western side of the entrance in 2009.
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