Remediation on Track at Former ’Dirtiest Site in Europe’ - ALcontrol Group

The Avenue former coking works located 3km south of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England is a prominent site known internationally by the remediation and civil engineering sectors. Much has changed both on the site and in waste management / environmental permitting since Construction News, in July 2006, described The Avenue as ’The dirtiest site in Europe.’

Exceeding 80 hectares, the site operated for 36 years as a coking works and had a long and varied industrial history prior to this use. In addition to the production of smokeless fuels the site also processed the by-products from this process and as well as receiving wastes from other National Coal Boards sites in the region. As such, the site possibly lives up to the Construction News tag by being contaminated with a range of sulphur compounds, creosote, blended fuel wastes, benzoles, tars, asbestos and spent oxides.

The last charge of coke was processed in September 1992 with the works closing shortly after in the October. Ownership passed through English Partnerships (now the Homes and Communities Agency – HCA) to East Midlands Development Agency (emda) which is managing the remediation and landscape works that are being funded by the HCA as part of their National Coalfields Regeneration Programme.

VSD - a joint venture consortium comprising DEC (DEME Environmental Contractors – the Belgian based Environmental Contractor), Sita Remediation (a Dutch based thermal desorption specialist) & Volker Stevin (the civil engineering contractor) were awarded the £82million remediation and landscaping contract in July 2009 and works commenced in earnest during the summer of 2010.

The analysis of environmental samples is being undertaken by ALcontrol using a web-based system known as ’@mis’ which enables the scheduling of analytical work and provides live access to laboratory results.