Former Landfill Remediation & Re-Engineering - Burgess Hill, West Sussex

Client: Countryside Properties Plc
Date: June – November 2020
Nature of works: Remediation and Re-engineering
Contract Value: £1.6m

Soilfix carried out remediation of a former landfill in preparation for the construction of a Spine Road and new housing development

The Challenge

A parcel of land approximately 1.1 hectare in West Sussex was the site of a Council Landfill operating in the 1970s and 1980s. The adjacent proposed 3,600-unit ’Northern Arc’ residential development required the construction of a Spine Road across the landfill area. Soilfix were tasked with remediating and re-engineering the ground to make it chemically and geotechnically suitable for construction of the Spine Road together with footpath/cycleway, swales, sport pitch and children’s play areas.

Our Solution

Soilfix designed and implemented the following remedial / re-engineering solutions:

• Excavation and segregation/Quicklime conditioning of cohesive capping materials so they were suitable for re-use during future groundworks;
• Excavation of all landfill material within the site boundaries;
• Physical separation (modular processing) of landfill waste from over 15,000m³ soils;
• Segregation of asbestos cement (AC) fragments and a partially lagged boiler from the landfill waste in accordance with CAR2012;
• Pumping / treatment of all leachate encountered in the landfill by silt separation, activated carbon treatment and methane stripping prior to discharge to sewer under license;
• Conditioning and stabilisation of processed landfill fines, re-instating to required formation levels to a robust platform for future works, ensuring geotechnical suitability to meet the high standards of the adopting authority (>95% of relative dry density);
• Off-site removal of >1,200 tonnes of landfill waste and other deleterious materials including, asbestos, significant plastic, timbers, and tyres. This material was further segregated with a significant amount recycled or used as fuel in Energy from Waste / Refused Derived Fuel in Power Plants; and,
• Comprehensive environmental monitoring & controls for mitigation of noise, odours, dust, and airborne fibres.

Soilfix successfully completed site works with no lost time accidents, facilitating the future construction of infrastructure serving the residential housing development on programme.

Over 15,000m³ of soils containing landfill waste were generated, of which, >99% reuse of the soil was achieved.