Minnamurra Estuary Boardwalk

The project

Niche Environment and Heritage (Niche) and Riparian Engineering were commissioned by Kiama Council to prepare a conceptual design of a 1.6km boardwalk from the southern part of Minnamurra River estuary adjacent to Riverside Drive to the northern road bridge.

The purpose of the project was to identify and understand significant geotechnical and environmental constraints, and incorporate elements to overcome these challenges, into an amenable conceptual design.

Our role in this project

The objective was to identify constraints and incorporate design features that improve, avoid, and or minimise impacts to the estuarine/riparian environment, while also allowing for a pathway that facilitates a pleasant user and educational experience.

The design assessed constraints using information from the site inspection, data bases, mapping and reports/plans to inform design type and location to best place the pathway to reduce building, approval costs and minimise the impact to the environment.

Challenges

The project is located in a sensitive environment and there are several geotechnical, environmental and legislative constraints. Constraints identified included:

• Riparian and estuarine vegetation
• Potential rocky substrate
• Stability of rock revetment
• Limited road verge
• Aboriginal cultural heritage
• Safety

To overcome these, Niche and Riparian Engineering provided a range of route options for stakeholder consultation and further environmental, geotechnical, structural engineering studies required for the final detailed design.