It is the largest clean-up of contaminated sites since Georgswerder (1985 to 1995) and the Bille clean-up (until 1997): The Ministry of Environment and Health has now begun the 17 million euro clean-up of Grasbrook in HafenCity.
The HE-TS 18 truck scales were rented out by ESSMANN | Waagen & Automation for the duration of the refurbishment work
The soil in the Überseequartier neighborhood at the Port of Magdeburg—where thousands of people are soon to live—is still contaminated today. Tar oils, benzene, and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are contaminating nearly seven hectares of soil on the former site of Hamburg’s oldest gasworks. The Grasbrook gasworks was built in 1844 and remained in operation for about 130 years, until 1976. The harmful PAHs are produced during incomplete combustion processes, such as the burning of wood and coal in the former coking plant.
Construction workers must excavate approximately 200,000 cubic meters of soil to a depth of four meters. The contaminated soil will then either be treated at an incineration plant in Bremen and reused—for example, in road construction—
, or stored at landfills in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. An estimated 10,000 truckloads will be removed.
HE-TS 18 truck scales in use during the renovation of the old gasworks site in the port of Hamburg
Security measures are strict. The trucks must pass through a tire-washing station and are weighed on a road vehicle scale from ESSMANN | Waagen & Automation before leaving the site. After all, the toxic substances must not be allowed to spread throughout the city. Workers must pass through an airlock each time, change their clothes there, and take a shower. Smoking and eating are strictly prohibited on the premises.
The chemicals aren’t the only danger: During the massive firestorm in July 1943, this once-important industrial area was heavily bombed. And unexploded ordnance and shells still lie buried in the ground. “You can see 25 impact craters in the aerial photographs,” says Volker Dumann. Employees of the explosive ordnance disposal service are therefore constantly on site. Dumann: “Every excavator bucket is carefully inspected.” The remediation work is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2005. Time is running out: The first construction phase in the Überseequartier is scheduled to be completed four years later.
Source: “Hamburger Abendblatt from Sat./Sun. 24/25.01.2004 – www.abendblatt.de
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ESSMANN HE-TS mobile truck scales in use
