WHILE apartments, top left, and a new boat storage shed, bottom right, are nearing completion at Martha Cove, Safety Beach, the marina estate’s body corporate is arranging maintenance works and new camera equipment for the Marina Drive underpass.
MAINTENANCE works are scheduled later this year for the underpass that takes traffic below the entrance to the Martha Cove marina at safety Beach.
Once a relatively small opening to Tassells Creek, the much deeper channel now leads to the berths and launching ramp within the marina, which is flanked by houses.
CCTV cameras monitor traffic in the underpass and pedestrians using the enclosed walkway and elevators just metres above the roadway.
Painted and shaped to resemble the innards (and ribs) of an upturned whale, the underpass is equipped with more than half of the 30 security cameras monitoring the 74-hectare Martha Cove residential estate and marina.
The cameras are monitored at a control centre at the community hub in Pickings Road, which also has a growing community garden and is home to the Martha Cove Fishing Club.
Applications have also been distributed for 100 foundation members of the fledgling Martha Cove Yacht Squadron.
The latest issue of The Cove, newsletter of the Martha Cove Owners Corporation, says the maintenance of the Marina Drive underpass follows “some years battling with VicRoads to get some action”.
The newsletter says the most expensive part of the maintenance will see the installation of a “cathodic protection system” to monitor concrete in the underpass “and ensure corrosion of concrete reinforcing steel is minimised”.
Other maintenance being undertaken at Martha Cove includes replacing 1000 “rotted and splintered” boardwalk boards; fixing parts of the limestone revetment wall around the marina; dredging waterways; and undertaking works listed in the $300,000 landscaping budget.
Meanwhile, finishing touches are being applied to the first of the 43 apartments and shops at The Moorings.
Developers say most of the marina-side apartments have been sold.
A bistro, bar with dining area and wine store are scheduled to be completed by mid-year.
Further inland, a 70 tonne capacity travel lift is being used in the boatyard near the public launching ramp, while a July opening is expected for a boat shed designed to accommodate 100, 10 metre boats.
First published in the Mornington News – 30 April 2019
