VIDEO: Transnet gets Durban beaches ‘pumped’ for festive season

TRANSNET National Ports Authority’s (TNPA) Dredging Services division has been hard at work getting the beaches along Durban’s popular Golden Mile ready to welcome thousands of holidaymakers this festive season.

TNPA Dredging Services has a beach nourishment agreement with the eThekwini Municipality.

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The port landlord’s trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHDs), dredge sand from the sand trap on the southern side of the entrance channel and reclaim this onto the Northern beaches.

Clive Greyling, Civil Technologist in the Port of Durban’s Infrastructure department, said, “When you go to the beach in December over the holiday period, you’re standing on completely different sand than a year ago. You might recognise the piers, the buildings and the city – but the beach is completely new. That is our role in maintaining the beaches and supporting tourism.”

In collaboration with eThekwini’s coastal engineering, storm water and catchment management department, the port authority plays a crucial role in ensuring beaches are ready for tourists to enjoy, stimulating the economy and boosting Durban as a city.

“Annually approximately 600,000 cubic metres of sand naturally migrates up the South Coast and gets trapped behind the South Pier in an area we call the sand trap. With the sand being trapped on the Southern side of the South Pier, the beaches to the north of the entrance channel are slowly depleted of sand.

“Transnet and TNPA Durban have a corporate social responsibility to collect the sand that has been trapped to put it on the beaches on the Northern side of the channel,” added Greyling.

The dredging of the sand trap is of paramount importance to the port, keeping the entrance channel and basin open at the correct depth and width, as well as the berths which serve as parking bays for ships inside the port.

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The City manages the outlet points where sand is discharged onto the beaches and where payloaders are used to move the sand on the beach.

TNPA has recently pumped sand onto the new beach area created through the municipality’s promenade extension project from uShaka beach pier southwards towards the harbour entrance.

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