The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Foul weather hits artificial reef work

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Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Foul weather hits artificial reef work

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

Commissioning of the project likely to be affected

Six weeks’ good weather needed to complete 25 to 30 per cent of the work: official
Work estimated to cost Rs.7.8 crore

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rough sea and inclement weather are delaying the work on the multi-purpose reef being set up off the coast of Kovalam at a cost of Rs.7.8 crore.

With the weather playing spoilsport, it has almost been confirmed that the commissioning of the artificial reef will not take place before the onset of the monsoon.

“We need a minimum of six weeks’ good weather to complete 25 to 30 per cent of the work. That seems remote as per the weather forecast,” a top official of the New Zealand-based Artificial Surfing Reef (ASR), which is executing the project, told The Hindu.

The groundwork was completed by the ASR on the premises of the Department of Harbour Engineering near Vizhinjam and the majority of the remaining works had to be carried out in the sea.

Works were stalled following delay in getting administrative sanction for the revised estimate of the project being taken up under the Centre’s tsunami rehabilitation programme by Kerala Tourism.

“We have signed supplementary agreement with the department and Kerala Tourism has provided 10 per cent of the total cost. All the hurdles have been cleared and we are waiting for good weather to commence the work,” he said.

Although the deadline for the projects under the tsunami rehabilitation programme was March this year, the technical committee has recommended extension of the timeframe till March 2010. “We will complete the project this year itself,” he said.

The artificial reef, having length of 110 metres and width of 38 metres, is to come up 150 metres from the Lighthouse beach and 110 metres from the Lighthouse. The reef is in ‘V’ shape with its apex facing the sea. The reef is to be constructed using sand-filled geotextile mega containers (geobags).

Geomats

Geomats, 18 metres long and 38 metres wide, imported from Germany, will be anchored to the seabed. According to the official, this is being done to prevent differential sinking of the bags and sand erosion between them. As many as 27 geobags will be used.

Each empty geobag will have a weight of 1-1.5 tonnes and when filled with sand it will be in the range of 200-300 tonnes. The empty bags will be attached to the geomats. The geobags will be inflated with water first and later sand in slurry form will be filled through the four inlets.

In ideal conditions, 200 cubic metres of sand can be filled in a day. The three-inch thick geobags made from non-woven staple fibre and needle-punched geotextile were imported from Australia. The work on the ‘D’ section of the reef to be attached to the Light House headland will be taken up first. The ‘A’ section has a depth of two metres and the deepest part, five metres, is in the ‘C’ section.

According to the official, the geobags, being used are UV and puncture resistant and will promote marine ecology. “It will be an ideal breeding ground for fish. The fishermen community can look for lobsters once the reef comes up,” the official said.

The reef will be placed below half a metre of the low tide level and one metre below the high tide level. Around 4,000 cubic metres of sand will be needed for filling the geobags.

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