Clay and curd. Much of it is the still undeveloped areas of the capital region and many coastal growth centers.
The wretched leftover masses can be dug up, transported to the hopper and replaced with high-quality filler.
That is: driving loads of tens of tons across the country, there and back maybe 20 times - and tomorrow again!
Masses can also be used to advantage near the construction site, as long as there is space in the urban space for casting and material handling, and the residents understand.
The third option is to conjure up some gold. For example, by stabilizing, even poor soil is transformed into a suitable material for construction and filling. For stabilization, industrial by-products and waste can be used as such or mixed with cement and other commercial binders.
Once in the port of Vuosaari the six-hectare port field was layer stabilized for better load-bearing capacity. Industrial by-products were partly used as a binder.
The solution significantly reduced the need for material and transport, as the thickness of the layers of the entire structure could be significantly reduced.
In another Vuosaari site, there was 150 m000 of obsolete soil.
The utilization of "kura" as a building material for, for example, roadbeds and noise barriers and its stabilization in situ with industrial by-products was calculated to be 2,5 million euros cheaper than replacing the masses.
There are countless similar examples in the capital region.
As recently as five years ago Helsinki transported 500 tons of earth materials to landfills from its infrastructure sites. Last year, none.
Money was saved 7 million euros and CO2 emissions 25 tons.
Quite reasonable. With the amount of CO2 saved in the transportation of aggregates, 75 people from Helsinki would fly to Rome and back to escape the winter darkness.
For comparison, for example, the annual carbon dioxide emissions of the Finnish cement industry are estimated to be almost 300 tons.
According to reports from the Helsinki Construction Agency, the utilization of excavated soil on or near the site saves 71–82 percent of the emissions caused by the transportation of soil materials. 70 percent less virgin soil and rock is consumed.
Finland already is Europe's largest gold producer. It could be even more, if only growing cities, the Finnish Transport Agency, legislators, licensing authorities and land developers want it.
When experiments and pilots are permanently moved to a new operating model, the savings for the environment and the wallet start to be substantial. Worth their weight in gold.
Anu Ginström
editor-in-chief
INFRA magazine
The text has also been published INFRA magazine (4/2015) as an editorial.
Thanks for this interesting write-up. I didn't know that in Helsinki, so much soil material from infrastructure sites was taken directly to the landfill. It's great that the soil generated during construction can also be recycled for use in the building's needs. There is enough need for transport companies on construction sites. So too here in Kotka when I follow the construction of the neighbor's plot.