Research done to address siltation
MEMBERS of Bray Municipal District were given an update last Tuesday on a study being carried out at the harbour in Bray.
Consultants were engaged in February to carry out the study.
This project requires the consultant to carry out detailed surveys, report on the options available to protect the harbour from storm conditions, look into options to provide additional berthing facilities including the possibility of providing a short term drop on/drop off berth for a small passenger vessel plying between different harbours within an hour or so of Bray. Consultants RPS visited Bray harbour in recent weeks to fly a drone at low tide to collect information from the surrounding area.
This information was required to confirm and validate the presence of rocky outcrops along the Bray to Greystones coastline which can impact upon sediment transport and thus sedimentation within the harbour.
They will now be progressing with the development of suitable harbour options, members learned. This assessment is based on long term spectral wave and hydraulic modelling of the existing Bray harbour area which they have already completed.
According to the report, the Council has been assured progress from here-on-in will be swift. In respect to the project programme they are aiming to have completed draft versions of the stage two report by December.
Cllr Joe Behan said that he would like to see progress as soon as possible. ‘ The promenade, seafront and cliff walk are such a huge jewel in the crown for the town and county and the whole east coast.’ He said he would welcome the development of improved public access and boating access to compliment what has been done at the seafront.
Cllr Behan referred to the 1963 episode of RTE’s ‘Reeling in the Years’ which included a report of the seaside resort, which had gone to rack and ruin at that time. A contributor referred to the area as one of the most ‘squalid and sordid’ seafronts in Europe. Cllr Behan noted how much the seafront has changed. ‘It’s all down to the work of local authorities in those 60 years,’ said Cllr Behan. ‘It shows when there is investment and expertise how things can be turned around.’