In 2003 the Dutch Ministry of Public Works and Water Management called out a European contest: 'The Remediating Road'. In this contest, road infrastructure had to be used to remediate contaminated sludge. The combination GeoDelft and Royal Boskalis Westminster received an award with their concept 'De Baggerspeciematras' (The SludgeMattress). Realization and testing of a full scale pilot test took place between September 2005 and May 2007. The SludgeMattress consists of a construction material from sludge which can be remediated during the lifetime of the road. The material is light sothat settlements on soft soils are reduced. This makes The SludgeMattresseconomically competitive with sand. After removing crude materials the liquid sludge is converted into a strong and permeable stabilized foam usingbinding agents, foam and organic fibers. The SludgeMattress is permeable which makes remediation of the contaminated sludge possible. Rainwater percolates through the material washes out the contaminants. The contaminatedleachate is cleaned in an ecological zone next to the road. The paper describes the concept and its benefits. It provides a perspective over the economic and technical feasibility of large scale implementation of the concept. At PIARC 2007 the preliminary results of laboratory testing and the pilot test are presented. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Samenvatting