What’s going on at Narrabeen Lagoon?

If you live near Narrabeen Lagoon or have recently driven past the Ocean Street Bridge you would have seen our contractors are setting up fencing and establishing a work site.

We’re preparing to restart works to rectify the bridge’s abutments, which will involve placing sandstone armouring to protect the embankments on either side of the bridge from scouring and fill some voids on the bridge that could cause instability to the roadway.

To ensure the project progresses safely and efficiently, we need to close the lagoon entrance to allow water levels to rise so the barge carrying the sandstone can float safely. Currently, lagoon water levels are too low for the barge to float. 

Our coastal engineers will time the opening with tidal conditions. At this stage, we expect to stockpile sand at the entrance on Monday, 6 March and then close the lagoon entrance mechanically on Tuesday, 7 March.

The lagoon entrance opens and closes naturally depending on how much rainfall occurs and how much sand accumulates in the mouth.

As always, Council staff are ready to step in and open the entrance to the lagoon manually should weather and tide conditions change and become a public safety and flood concern.

To understand how Council manages our lagoons, please watch the video explainer.

Improvement works on Ocean Street Bridge initially started in September 2021, although were delayed due to prolonged low water levels and ongoing weather events. We expect these works to run for five weeks, weather and lagoon water levels permitting.