The bridge is a State Gov project, and it’s a low level bridge, which nobody could understand because of the large amount of boat traffic (trawlers and sailing boats) that goes through there would require a much higher one, they even forgot about the Fed Gov defence facility up river that contains a whole bunch of medium sized landing craft that wouldn’t fit under the bridge at high tide. The fishermen got a high court injunction too stop it being built for a long time until the Gov provided a new place on the Seaward side for them.
I reckon you could have made a good ‘Yes Minister’ episode on the subject.
Mark there was a doco on TV the other night about how Holland had done a marvellous job with the new boom gates and dykes but they were having a huge problem with snow/ice melt up river and more volume of fresh water coming down. There is no easy answer when you have too keep the sea out, but that also keeps the fresh water in at the same time (no choice), now it seems they were thinking of sacrificing some areas and let them flood, villages, farmland etc. and that’s not an ideal solution either, but how high can you build river levy banks without running the risk of a sudden break and a massive flood? Lots of luck…I’m wondering what’s in store in the future as well, the house I’m in here is only a few hundred metres from the sea and about four metres above high tide.
Greg
The new workshop/service shed etc. for the landing craft on the seaward side of the bridge. (file photo)

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