Coastal Dune Resilience Project – West Busselton (Dolphin Road)
Published on Thursday, 30 January 2025 at 11:59:45 AM
The City of Busselton is rehabilitating and enhancing coastal dunes and refurbishing the coastal path along Geographe Bay Road to increase their resilience to coastal erosion and flooding.
Project Objectives
To enhance the capacity for the coastal dunes to resist erosion, and to adapt the coastal path in selected low lying areas of West Busselton (Dolphin Rd), identified through coastal, modelling as pathways for coastal flooding, and mitigate risk of coastal inundation.
Project Scope
A hybrid solution of using nature-based techniques on coastal dunes to improve resilience to erosion and adapting existing coastal paths to reduce coastal flooding has been adopted. The capacity of the coastal dunes to resist erosion will be improved by increasing the volume of degraded low-lying dunes. Beach sand for dune rebuilding will be imported to the dunes or relocated from adjacent beaches where ongoing accretion occurs. Selective planting of native species will be undertaken to both increase the resilience of the dune surface to erosion, and to restore or enhance the ecological function of the coastal dune habitat. Refurbishing the coastal path will provide a minimum crest level in certain areas, with improved scour protections against erosion to also allows path amenity to be improved by widening and resurfacing. The drainage outlet located on the northern end of Silverglen Ave will also be upgraded by extending the stormwater outlet with a non-return valve, headwall and levee bank.
The Dolphin Road Boat ramp is required to be closed during the dune works and parts of the path works, with expected closure over February and March 2025. The boat ramp may be temporarily opened on weekends, subject to the stage of construction, noting parking will be limited. Launching will be available at Abbey Boat Ramp.
Project Timing
The project will commence February 2025 and is scheduled for completion end of March 2025 (subject to weather conditions).
Enquiries
Should you have any queries in relation to the proposal, please contact Daniell, Manager Engineering and Facilities on 08 9781 0379 daniell.abrahamse@busselton.wa.gov.au
