Materials Handling during Utilities Construction in Areas of Known Soil and Groundwater Contamination

Utilities construction in areas where known groundwater and soil contamination is present requires up front planning and attention to constraints imposed by the owner, as well as local, state and federal regulatory agencies to mitigate cost and time risks. This paper presents the concept of a Materials Handling Plan (MHP) to mitigate these risks and was developed concurrent with design to incorporate areas known contamination and design data into the quantification and materials handling protocols for differing excavated materials that the Constructor might encounter during construction. After identifying the likely contamination and material handling protocols, the A/E, using GIS tools, historical maps, and known areas of soil and groundwater contamination to quantify each type of contaminated material the Constructor was likely to encounter. This approach was used at a former WWII munitions plant with antiquated infrastructure that is now occupied with government agencies. This facility requires replacement and rehabilitation of all or portions of water, sanitary sewer, storm water and electrical systems and has known volatile organic compounds (VOCs), metals, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and asbestos contamination in the soil and VOCs contamination in the groundwater.