Ramp plans sunk

Alex de Vos
A funding shortfall has forced authorities to shelve plans to replace Torquay’s crumbling boat ramp, according to the region’s coast committee.
The shortfall follows 18 months of planning and its pledge to deliver a new structure before Christmas last year.
Great Ocean Road Coast Committee executive officer David Clarke blamed rising construction prices for the shortfall.
“We tendered the project back in June and since then tender prices have gone up,” Mr Clarke said.
He said the committee would apply for more funding through Marine Safety Victoria to help carry out the project.
“To deliver the project that we want we need additional funding,” Mr Clarke said.
He could not comment on whether or not anglers could expect a new ramp before the end of next year.
“We’ve got to go through the process which will run its course,” Mr Clarke said.
“We’re coming up to the summer season so construction had to be completed by August, but that window has closed so we’ve put it back until early next year.”
Earlier this year the Independent revealed Torquay could have a new boat ramp before Christmas.
Mr Clarke told the Independent he expected work to start in July or August.
“We want to have it finished by Christmas,” he had said.
State Government announced in 2008 that it would provide $749,000 to replace an existing crumbling ramp on the same site at Fisherman’s Beach.
But Victoria’s peak recreational fishing group, VRFish, said the new design was not safe without a breakwater to protect anglers launching and retrieving boats from ocean swells.
A 2007 VRFish study listed the Fisherman’s Beach boat ramp as one of the state’s most dangerous. The organisation used the study to back local anglers’ calls for a breakwater.
An earlier Great Ocean Road Coast Committee study had investigated options for replacing the ramp but ruled out a breakwater amid fears of impacts on the environment and a nearby surf break at Yellow Bluff.