Specialist cleans up at £18m urban regeneration site

Once West Midlands-based Envirotreat has remediated the 0.75-acre site in Wick Lane, Old Ford, Bow, London, residential developer Henley Homes London will build a seven-storey block of 71 apartments, which will have an end value of £18 million.
Envirotreat will use its world-wide patented chemical remediation technology to rid the land of all contamination and protect a local river from further pollution.

Envirotreat was brought in by consultant engineer Card Geotechnics to deal with a cocktail of pollutants on the site left by previous users. Organic and heavy metal pollutants present across the site stem from its long history of industrial activity. In the 19th century it was occupied by a chemical works, wharfingers, roofing company, dust and road contractors and a cloth manufacturer.
By the 20th century, the site was divided into a number of units and was occupied by a glass bottle manufacturer, a roofing company, tin plate works, timber yard, welding company, foundry, furniture manufacturers, another welding company and a feather merchant.

“The site is adjacent to the River Lea and the main objective of the remediation strategy is to protect the river by dealing with off site migration of pollutants,” said Robert Moreu, Technical Sales Manager at Kingswinford-based Envirotreat.
Envirotreat will be responsible for overall project management for the remediation, and the construction of an Active Containment System, including two active barriers, incorporating its award-winning E-clays technology.

“Given the extent of the contamination in both soil and groundwater, with respect to the size constraints of the site, the most appropriate remediation to facilitate the proposed development, protect groundwater resources and future site users, and to reduce the impact of the site on the nearby River Lea, was determined to be encapsulation with associated gas protection measures,” said Mr Moreu.

“The encapsulation includes an active containment system (ACS) incorporating two active sections using continuous flight auger (CFA) secant pile technique, constructed using the Envirotreat E-clay technology. To complete the containment system Keller Ground Engineering will install slurry walls and grouting techniques below two large water mains.”

Part of the ACS will comprise a Corus Hydrobarrier, installed by Giken, which operates as a passive low permeability wall and is designed to operate as a retaining wall for a raised footpath.
The system, designed and warranted by Envirotreat, has been approved by the Environment Agency.

Development in South East

Midlands-based Envirotreat is winning an increasing volume of contracts in the south-east of England, where the company has opened a new office.
This operation will be managed by David Clarke, as Managing Surveyor, who joins the contaminated land remediation specialist from Kent-based Bilsey Construction Ltd, where he was Managing Director.

Mr Clarke believes that there is a major market opportunity to remediate polluted land across the South East. “As all treatment happens on site, there is no costly transfer of hazardous material to waste sites, and no on-going liabilities,” he says.

The company’s E-clays® technology is stated to be capable of neutralising even the most heavily contaminated soil and groundwater.

In addition to the Wick Lane project, Envirotreat can cite a significant record of remediation work in the South East of England. These include, in the past three months, the remediation of a heavily contaminated seven acre site in Bromley-by-Bow, East London, which will be the location for a new £4 million 40,000ft2 distribution centre for newspaper and magazine distributor, Menzies Distribution, part of John Menzies plc.

The project was carried out for Norwest Holst Construction on behalf of industrial developer ProLogis Development Ltd in a joint venture with Mowlem Remediation, part of Mowlem plc.

The company has also cleaned up the three acre site of a historic landfill tip at Kew Riverside by the River Thames for new homes and a school sports pitch, as part of Richmond Schools PFI project for Jarvis plc.