Belgian Crown Prince Filip Visits DEC Remediation Project in Brazil

ZWIJNDRECHT – Within the context of a princely mission titled “Multisectoral – Brazil”, prepared by FIT (Flanders Investment & Trade) the Belgian crown prince Filip has visited today the remediation project of the contaminated site “Lixao da Alemoa” in Santos, executed by DEME subsidiary DEC.

During the princely mission to Brazil, prince Filip visited the contaminated site “Lixao da Alemoa” in the Brazilian harbour city Santos, a site currently being remediated by DEME subsidiary DEC. Having started their first assignment ever in Latin America, DEC is honoured to welcome the delegates and the prince on the site.Brasil Terminal Portuario, a Brazilian terminal operating company whose main customer will be shipping company MSC, signed the contract for this remediation with DEC (DEME Environmental Contractors) in March 2009. The value of the project is 75 million euro. The order consists of remediating the Santos harbour site, where an illegal dump was created during the past couple of years.

This is a turnkey project, which means that DEC not only guarantees its implementation but also designs the concept and arranged the financing and the accompanying guarantees. The sites are at the edge of a bay, making the substratum unstable. The dumped material leaches into a river and further into the sea. All together this contaminated soil covers an area of 45 ha. The remediation requires processing 680 000 m³ of domestic and industrial waste. Part of this is highly contaminated waste. Brasil Terminal Portuario builds a container terminal on the remediated site. DEC won the order through its innovative approach. In addition to its experience with similar large orders abroad, including remediating the site for the London Olympics, three points in DEC’s proposal were decisive in beating the competition:

-The major part of the 680 000 m³ soil to be remediated will be recycled by DEC and will be employed in useful reuse in the building of the container terminal. DEC will only have to store a fraction of what is left over: about 10 000 to 50 000 m³.

-Applying a patented technique of soft soil improvement at the site boundaries. Through the application of this foundation technique for soft soils, it is possible to construct a bund at each side of the future terminal. These bunds together with the foundation act as a physical barrier to the surrounding environment which is partly classified as preserved nature.

-DEC itself helped arrange financing of the project. This is done by Fortis and is guaranteed by the Belgian National Delcredere Service.

The contract is worth € 75 million and offers work for almost two years. For this project, DEC invests in additional equipment, such as a soil separation and soil washing installation and equipment for soft soil improvement. The works have started in November 2009. Because of agreements on building the container terminal, the soil remediation must be finished within 102 weeks. This large scale project in Santos represents a real breakthrough by DEC on the international markets outside of Europe. The project also proves that DEC is able to provide turnkey projects all over the world. The Santos project again underlines the increasing importance of Latin America for DEME. The group recently already has been active in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Panama and Mexico. The environmental order in Santos emphatically fits in a series of projects in durable development.

About the princely mission

Brazil is not only the guest country for the world championships football in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, but is also one of the fastest growing economical powers – together with Russia, India and China.This multisectoral business travel is taking place from May 15th to May 21st and will pay visits to cities like São Paulo, Rio De Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.

About DEC

DEME Environmental Contractors (DEC) brings together the full range of environmental activities of the Antwerp dredging, civil engineering and environmental group DEME. DEC resulted from a merger of DEME companies Silt (processing sludge and sediment), Soils (soil and ground water remediation), Bitumar (water works and technology for dumping sites) and OEC (remediation orders abroad). The companies date from the 1980s. In 2000 the decision was made to combine knowledge, techniques and experience into one company so as to be able to offer total solutions. Recent large environmental orders implemented by DEC include remediation of soil at old coke sites in Dublin and Chesterfield, remediating the sites where the London Olympics will be organized in 2012 and, in its own country – Belgium – the remediation of the acid tar basins for Total in Ertvelde, the remediation of the former Carcoke coking works site in Zeebrugge and the remediation and redevelopment of the site “Eilandje” in Zwijnaarde (Gent).

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Source: deme, May 19, 2010