For services Australia-wide 02 9979 1722

Rain Complicates Remediation of Aldi Wyong Site

  • Rain inundates ALDI remediation site
    Inundated site of new Aldi Wyong store
  • Site remediation at Aldi Wyong
    Lime proved ineffective in stablising the waterlogged ground

Project Info

Client Aldi
Skills contamination assessment, remediation, geotechnical engineering, qualitative risk assessment, asbestos disposal, underground fuel tank removal

Project Description

Situation: The site of the new Aldi Wyong store had previously been used for a hardware business and mechanical workshop. It contained a metre-thick layer of asbestos-contaminated fill and four underground fuel tanks, one of which was leaking.

Actions: To prepare the site for development, Geo-Logix was engaged to:
• Remove and dispose of the asbestos-contaminated fill
• Remove and dispose of the underground fuel tanks
• Neutralise the exposed acid sulphate soils
• Assess the contamination risks to groundwater in relation to the fuel tank leak

Challenges: The deadline was tight and the project was plagued by high rainfall and ongoing wet weather. Geo-Logix had to adapt remediation efforts to cater to conditions.
The high rainfall made site operations difficult, especially once excavations had exposed the acid sulphate soils and the soft sub-grade became saturated and unstable for machinery.

Attempts to use lime to stabilise the wet and spongy subgrade were hampered by the inclement weather and an alternative solution was needed. Geo-Logix proposed an engineered solution using screw piles to support the proposed car park and building slab; with less stringent compaction requirements backfilling could then be completed in just a few days.

Petroleum contaminated groundwater was identified at the site boundary and offsite under the footpath and utilities and a conceptual model indicate chemical vapours posed a potential risk. The wet weather impeded Geo-Logix’s ability to investigate subsurface chemical vapour. Consequently, Geo-Logix adopted a qualitative risk assessment approach comparing site conditions against international research data to demonstrate that the residual contamination in groundwater was well within safe levels.