Bayou d’Inde remediation, Louisiana, USA
A unique underwater installation of articulated concrete block mat, and the application of a sand-water slurry were implemented to remediate industrial contamination in Bayou d’Inde, a major tributary of the Calcasieu River located in southern Louisiana.
Numerous contaminants - mainly polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) - had accumulated over decades of industrialisation in in two distinct areas. To address these environmental impacts in tidally influenced bodies of water required innovative thinking, considerable planning, and precise control at the field level.
In the first area, contaminated sediments were covered and isolated with an impermeable concrete blanket. Over 39,400 square yards of articulated concrete block mat were installed over 2200 linear feet of bayou, with a unique design where the panels were zippered and overlapped to create a continuous bank-to-bank cover.
In the second area, over 21,000 tonnes of sand were pumped into 15.8 acres of fringe marshes, areas that are tidally influenced with varying water levels up to 1 foot. A land-based, logic-controlled slurry system was used to create a sand-water slurry, which was applied in a controlled manner using sprayer barges. The sand cover will mix with existing sediments over the next 30+ years, leading to natural attenuation and protecting wildlife.
North East Link Technical Advisory, Victoria, Australia
North East Link Authority
GHD is technical advisor to North East Link Authority as it undertakes the Environment Effects Statement (EES) process to gain planning approvals for Victoria’s priority road infrastructure project – an AUD16 billion new freeway connecting the ‘missing link’ in Melbourne’s orbital ring road.
GHD advises at all levels and across three disciplines on the North East Link project, embedded directly within the authority’s office and sites. Our services include engineering design, technical planning and specialist services across 18 study areas including noise, air quality, landscape and visual, as well as communication and stakeholder engagement – all to ensure the project achieves lasting community benefit as Melbourne’s population continues to grow.
We have collaborated to share more detail than ever before about the planning process, including taking communities along the journey of selecting a corridor and using advanced technology such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to help people understand complex design information.
Saipan dump regulatory closure / Eloy S. Inos peace park, Northern Mariana Islands, USA
Office of the Governor/Capital Improvements Program
Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands and a US commonwealth in the Western Pacific, closed the Puerto Rico dump in 2003. At the time, the dump had grown to a 90-foot-high mound with an estimated 1.75 million cubic yards of waste, and required remediation to comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act under the US Environmental Protection Agency.
GHD’s Saipan office oversaw the engineering and construction management that went into transforming the landfill into a park with walking paths and lookouts for visitors to enjoy sunsets over the Philippine Sea and Pacific Ocean. The USD27.2 million project included the installation of a thick liner system and extensive stormwater drainage and tribar revetment protection system to drastically reduce the amount of contaminated water entering the lagoon and protect the slopes from erosion.
Features that collect and safely vent landfill gas were also designed and installed. The closure is now fully in compliance with USEPA’s requirements.
Tourian FEED, Teesside, UK
Tourian Renewables Limited (TRL)
GHD has completed the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for an innovative project in Teesside, UK, that will make valuable products such as fuels, oils or chemicals from waste plastic.
The project, developed to date by Tourian Renewables Limited (TRL), targets end of life plastics that have no further useful recycling value and will contribute to the goal of reducing the amount of plastic currently being disposed of in landfill sites.
Local GHD experience in supercritical steam and combustion systems, as well as electrical, civil and mechanical engineering expertise, was coupled with process plant design knowledge from GHD’s oil and gas team in Australia.
The project team deployed specialist technical process design knowledge alongside multi-disciplinary engineering capability to develop a robust FEED for the new facility.
This pioneering project will be the first of its kind in the UK whist the application of technology to achieve the range of end products from the waste plastics feedstock will be a world-wide first. TRL is asset managed by Armstrong Energy, a leading investor and developer of low carbon and other ‘circular economy’ projects.