Infrastructure,Cities and Active Transport Minister Rob Stokes said the cofferdam was the largest ever assembled in NSW.
“This is a feat of engineering on steroids. There is so much complexity in what is being delivered,” Stokes said on Wednesday.
Work is forging ahead on the project to shift the fish market from its existing site at Pyrmont to the head of Blackwattle Bay in Glebe.
The government has an ambitious agenda to overhaul the largely industrial western harbour foreshore with more intensive development in tandem with construction of the future metro rail line.
The cofferdam was constructed using more than 1000 interconnected sheet and tubular piles that have been driven into the bed of the bay. The enclosed structure has been drained to about four metres below sea level.
Multiplex regional director Daniel Murphy said the draining or “dewatering” of the cofferdam was a major milestone,and the water had been pumped in “a controlled manner,respecting the environment and the local ecosystem”.