More than six thousand tonnes of rock has started pouring into Kingscliff this week as work begins on the revetment wall aimed at arresting the erosion cell.
Council workers will work six days a week for three weeks to get the wall finished before the expected Easter King tides.
“We are pretty confident they will be able to complete the wall by Easter,” Tweed Mayor Barry Longland said.
Cr Longland said the new wall would join the current structures in front of the Bowls Club and surf club.
The workmen are accessing the beach through the southern end of the Kingscliff Beach Bowls Club carpark.
The bowls carpark will be disrupted during the day for the next three weeks while the workmen complete the wall.
The council have removed bollards and created temporary parking at the Northern end of the carpark on the grass to replace the spots taken up by workmen.
Cr Longland said it was essential to get the project underway as quickly as possible, hence last week’s extraordinary Council meeting, which awarded Boral Construction Materials for the supply of the 6300 tonnes of rock to build the 260m wall.
“There was a window of opportunity from the end of the NSW Surf Lifesaving Championships last weekend but Council needed to approve the tender before work could start, which meant the extraordinary meeting was necessary,” he said.
“Had we waited until our next regular meeting to give the approval, it may have led to further and more costly damage to the beach.”
The design of the wall has been developed in close consultation with the NSW Coastal Panel and was approved by the Tweed Coast Holiday Parks Reserve Trust, which will cover the expected $469,733 cost of the works.
Cr Longland said the wall was a temporary solution with a long-term redevelopment of the caravan park planned.
However he said the rocks being brought in now are there to stay and will be repositioned when the redevelopment begins.
A rock wall has been preferred to the option of sand bags because sand bags cost approximately three times as much and take twice as long to install. Rocks can also be relocated or reused, which is unlikely in the case of sand bags.
