On Mar 9, 2014, at 9:53 pm, Bob W-PDML <[email protected]> wrote: > Just a few yards downstream from Enderby Wharf is Ballast Wharf. Gravel used > to be extracted from Blackheath and loaded onto ships as ballast. There is > still a lot of activity there now off-loading various grades of gravel and > rock from ships, presumably to be trucked into parts of London where it's > needed. My guess is that much of that rubble will be taken by barge to > landfill, to reclaiming land, and to be recycled as building material or > ballast. A friend of mine who's a structural engineer and worked on the > emergency response to the Haiti earthquake told me that it was a big problem > for them to dispose of the rubble, which they eventually decided to use to > extend the island.
We call it "hard fill" or "clean fill". It's pretty cheap to dispose of here because it's recycled into new construction materials. As such a number of roading and concrete companies, along with some quarries, are approved as disposal sites. The port is also approved as they have a big land reclamation project on-the-go. I think they got into some hot water over using earthquake rubble early on, but I don't remember why. The cost of disposal goes up by almost an order of magnitude if it's suspected of containing asbestos. And a lot of old buildings contain asbestos in some very interesting places. Contractors are putting a lot of effort into finding and removing the stuff before demolition or repair work begins. It's affecting a lot of domestic repairs as well. Cheers, Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
