The Junta de Andalucía has announced it has completed the dredging works at the mouth of the Guadiana.
The dredging work removed far more than originally envisaged planned with 63,000 cubic meters of sand shifted, instead of the 55,000 planned for.
Maria José Bejarano representing the Andalusian Government, the director of the Public Ports Agency of Andalucía, Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez, representatives of the CCDR-Algarve, Vila Real de Santo António big-wigs and the mayor of Ayamonte, António Rodriguez, met to celebrate the occasion which was completed on time and without incident.
The Spanish project management team said the additonal volume removed was necessary fully to open up the navigation channel which now is 1,250 meters long and 60 meters wide, with a draft of 3.5 meters.
Most of the extracted sand has been used to bulk up the beaches at Isla Canela in Ayamonte, following the guidelines of the General Directorate of Sustainability and the Sea Coast in Spain.
The work cost €856,000 as part of the "Guadiana, a Navigable River" project funded by the European Programme for Cross-Border Cooperation between Spain-Portugal.
Meanwhile, under Portuguese management, dredging work has yet to start in the Arade in Portimão to allow large cruise ships to dock, at the commercial docks in Faro to increase turnaround times and safety for commercial shipping and in the Ria Formosa lagoon which is decades late due to an inability of Polis Ria Formosa to carry out even the most basic of its prescribed tasks.
