Dredging job really sucks but effective

It's a big job that really sucks, literally.

In the past 12 weeks the dredge machine, pictured working its way along a stretch of the Clive River, has sucked up about 49,000 cubic metres of mud and pumped it out to sea.

The machine has completed 1400m of its 1500m target, stretching from the coast to a point just past the Hawke's Bay Rowing Club.

It is operated by Auckland firm Heron Construction and uses a propeller system which scoops up and then sucks the mud on the river floor, like a big vacuum cleaner. It has been brought in to clean up the riverbed by the Hawke's Bay Regional Council which said it would increase the river's depth by about 80cm. The council's engineering officer Graham Edmondson said the last time the river was dredged was in 1997.

Work started in early May and would be finished by the end of this month. Three staffers from Heron had been operating the dredge during its time on the river.