Acrylamide clear but Swede client blasted

23 November 1998 18:00  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Removal of acrylamide pollution from groundwater at the troubled Halland Ridge tunnel scheme in Sweden has been completed CNI was told Monday but the government has criticised Banverket, the national rail authority, for poor project management.

A spokesman for the independent Environmental Group assessing the acrylamide problem for Banverket and contractor Skanska said active removal of the toxic chemical had been completed and only a relatively low concentration was left, totalling about 15kg. Acrylamide had methylacrylamide were in the tunnel grout mix Rhoca Gil, supplied by Rhodia (formerly Rhone-Poulenc) and used in large scale to seal rock fissures

Excavation stopped in October 1997 after animals drinking from nearby watercourses and construction workers became ill from toxic pollution. It took most of this year to drain the chemicals from groundwater using a specially drilled network of boreholes. Banverket is expected to report to government on 9 December the best options to rescue the project. The report will come shortly after the government's Tunnel Commission, part of the Ministry of the Environment, criticised among others the client rail authority over the quality of its planning and management.

The report said: "The failures encountered in the project must be primarily regarded as the result of deficiencies in management and control."

It adds that Banverket had "a routine for evaluating chemicals which had not been used previously, but this routine was not applied in the procurement process for Rhoca Gil".

By: Patrick Reynolds
+44 208 652 3214

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