Melbourne dredging comes in under budget

The Port of Melbourne has completed its dredging project nearly a quarter of a billion Australian dollars under budget.

Victorian premier John Brumby announced the Port Phillip Bay channel deepening project was done A$248m (US$222m) below the estimated target cost, which includes environmental monitoring costs to 2012.

The deepening project is vital to allow bigger vessels into the port. Budget savings were the result of several factors including good weather, better dredging productivity, use of an extra dredging vessel and careful project management.

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