 | | |
CONTAMINATED LAND SITES
Some real estates are different than their appearance...… |
 | | |
| Properties often have a long history with all sorts of on-site activities. Especially in the Rhine-Main-Neckar Area numerous properties are present that were used in the past for industrial purposes, as infiltration fields or landfills for construction rubble and waste materials. |
 |
 |
|
|
| | |
| The vast demolitions of buildings and structures during World War Two often resulted in a contamination of the underground. |
|
| Safe Time and Money! |
| | |
| During the purchase or sale of a property, an underground contamination often turns quickly into a serious problem for the entire project. A major contamination can freeze a project and may result in extensive remediation measures. |
| | |
| If a contamination is identified after the construction work started, most projects can't be kept in the planned economic frame and the time schedule will be exceeded. The remediation and decontamination of soil and groundwater is generally a cost-intensive task. |
| | |
| It is advisable to combine the geotechnical and environmental underground and/or groundwater investigations. Potentially required measures due to the underground conditions can easier be implemented during this early phase of the project than later. Rising costs due to replanning and a freeze of the construction work can be avoided. |
 | | |
| “Clean” Property – but high costs for disposal... |
| | |
The excavation of construction pits or the construction of roads and trenches for supply lines generates excavated soil material. According
to the German contaminated site legislation the excavated soil may not be considered to be contaminated – but once the soil is excavated, it is governed by the German waste legislation and the requirements are very different. This may result in high disposal costs, although without excavation the material would not have required any measures. |
| | |
| The soil disposal costs can be a major cost factor of a project. Therefore, a close eye should be kept on environmental issues from the beginning of the project. |
| | |
| It is recommended to implement the following measures in an early stage of a project: |
 | Soil investigation and analyses for the identification of soil disposal requirements | | | Estimation of the quantities of excavated soil for different disposal categories | | | Development of a waste management concept for the excavated materials | | | Provision of soil disposal alternatives in the tender documents | | |
|
| Pragmatic Solutions |
|
|
|
If you are planning or are in the process of buying a property, please
use our experience in assessing risks regarding potential geotechnical obstacles and/or potential underground contaminations. |
 |
