Hamilton Rail Trail

(Geo textile cloth and netting was used to create temporary access through the site, this also prevented the vehicles sinking and becoming stuck in the soft ground)

(A Mechanical excavator was used to remove the contaminated soil and load it into the pre-lined trailers)

(Hydro vacuuming holes to allow installation of Lighting Poles)

The Western Rail Trail Biking Path is a 2.7km off-road shared path and is one of 10 projects in Hamilton’s Biking Plan.

The challenge

To remove asbestos-contaminated soil from land adjacent to the Hamilton Rail Station to create a cycle lane. Because Green Way is an industry leader in the removal of contaminated soil and has successfully completed many projects of a similar nature, we were the right choice for this project.

The project

We carefully chose the right tools and equipment for this job. In this case, we used the Dust Fighter to spray a fine mist across the removal site. It’s designed to cover different sized areas with nebulised water (micro particles of water), which makes it an ideal solution to reduce dust in the air. The Dust Fighter has a large fan that disperses a fine mist of water into the air, capturing airborne dust particles and delivering them to the ground.

Along with the Dust Fighter, Green Way’s purpose-built five-stage de-contamination unit was used on site for all personnel to fully de-contaminate and keep everyone safe.

Mechanical excavators were used to load the pre-lined trailers with the contaminated soil, which were then passed through the wheel wash before setting off to Hampton Downs landfill for safe disposal.

This project was also the first time we used the services of a hydro vacuuming company. This meant contaminated soil could be removed from places where it is not realistic to use excavation equipment.

The result

Between November and December 2016, over 110 tonnes of contaminated soil was successfully removed from this site – paving the way for the creation of the new cycle lane.