Ebbw Vale gives regeneration The Works
26 Feb 2010
The redevelopment of a former steelworks site in Wales is producing its own soil from post-industrial slag or colliery spill.
After 200 years of industrial activity, The Works at Ebbw Vale, South Wales, has come up with a formula to produce two different types of soil suitable for either grassland or woodland by mixing the existing industrial spoil on site with green compost.
To achieve this, The Works is reported to have become the first scheme in Wales to take part in a project to use high quality compost to regenerate brownfield land with much of the compost coming from recycled green waste collected from households in the local region of Blaenau Gwent.
The compost was mixed with the basic steel slag and colliery spill, which had been screened to remove large objects, to create the two different types of soil.
A total of 65,000 cubic metres which equates to nearly 100,000 tonnes of soils have been manufactured at Ebbw Vale and used to create 11 hectares of urban green space. With much of the compost coming from green waste collected from local households, it has provided a cheaper and sustainable alternative to importing topsoil to The Works site.
The project has been described as an exemplar of sustainable regeneration.
Virtually everything on the site has been recycled - ranging from the steel in the reinforced concrete to the concrete itself that has been crushed to be reused on site. Green methods were also used to bioremediate contaminated material on site that has been impacted with oil or hydrocarbon.
Approximately 100,000 cubic metres of material was remediated which was reused on site structural fill.