Former Industrial Area

Gateshead

The Problem

The 3.9ha site has a history of heavy industrial use dating back before the 1850’s and is stepped with significant changes in level down to the bank of the River Tyne. In order to allow the construction of a proposed arena and conference centre, significant ground works to reprofile the site were required. Previous investigations identified the site formation consisted of deep Made Ground overlying shallow coal seams.

The made ground contained widespread asbestos contamination to a depth of 2.0mbgl and areas impacted by hydrocarbons. The reprofiling of the site would generate up to 100,000m3 of material to be removed from site, of which some 30,000m3 was expected to require disposal at a hazardous waste facility.

The Solution

BIOGENIE Remediation UK Limited carried out an initial characterisation of the material on-site and determined an approach mitigating the contamination risks and reducing disposal volumes and associated costs. The BIOGENIE program was tailored to allow a second contractor to carry out grouting of the underlying formation through a phased approach, reducing the project timescale by over 3 months.

BIOGENIE applied their experience to address concerns by regulators through instituting a comprehensive environmental and works monitoring program, including the monitoring of sensitive off-site receptors, and installing a bespoke water treatment system.

The Result

Asbestos contamination was addressed by a program of controlled soil stripping and hand picking, removing over 8 tons of asbestos waste under strictly controlled and monitored conditions.

A soil characterisation program and Materials Management Plan allowed for the segregation and stockpiling of soils to run concurrently with the remediation and enabling works.

BIOGENIE managed the drilling flushing wastes, treating and discharging over 4000m3 of water to foul sewer in line with the consent.

BIOGENIE crushed the removed obstructions and carried out in-situ stabilisation of site-won granular materials, reducing the need to import material and producing a monolith that easily exceeded the pile matt geotechnical requirements.