leonda landing is a timber structure situated on the left bank of the river yarra in hawthorn, victoria. it had previously been assessed as part of a broader network of assets and was nominated for further assessment.

river assets are commonly subject to bank stability issues that commonly manifest in the structure interacting with bank movements, which can lead to some interesting outcomes.

sureside made several key observations of the way in which movement in the bank had manifested in the structure. the structure also played a role in instability of the bank given that bank integrity had diminished along with deterioration in the structure.

one factor of significant interest was that one pile had significantly deteriorated. this was identified by sureside to be due to marine borer given the location of the deterioration in the water column. this indicated that freshwater rot was not repsonsible. this was not expected as the asset is located significantly upstream in the river, at a significant reach from the source of marine water (ideal marine borer habitat). sureside reviewed literature on the yarra brackish water environment and environments that support marine borers and ascertained that data supported there being a long term habitat for marine borer at depth at the asset site. data indicated that all of the navigable river yarra could support marine borer. this desktop analysis supported site observations.

sureside’s capability and attention to detail meant that the issues the structure was facing were appropriately identified. this was significantly contributed to by our experience in the assessment of similar riverbank dynamic environments including crown promenade monitoring, swan street bridge abutment, stock bridge in kensington and the vra landing in melbourne. our experience and knowledge of marine borers identified a source of deterioration that may have otherwise been dismissed. our attention to connections and detailing meant that shortcomings in the structure arrangement were identified as being critical to structure performance.

project client: parks victoria

sureside client: parks victoria

services: diagnostic analysis & condition Assessment

time period: 2020-21