Two months after the earthworks on the Oosterweel Connection were halted by the Council of State due to the PFAS problem, the earthworks can be resumed. Lantis, the company that realizes and manages the works, announced this on Sunday.
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Grondbank, the soil management organization of the Flemish Region, gave the green light to restart the earthworks in the Linkeroever construction zone on Monday. Lantis expects permission to start again next week for the Scheldt tunnel construction zone.
This was done after a thorough analysis by the Earth Resistance expert committee, which was also discussed with Ovam. In concrete terms, this means that the works can be carried out again with local land, land from the construction sites. The grounds remain within the specific zone.
Stricter criteria
At the end of December, the Council of State suspended the declaration of conformity of the Technical Reports for the Linkeroever and Scheldt tunnel projects. In order to comply with the judgment of the Council of State, Lantis has drawn up separate Cadastral Work Zones for each licensed project. The Technical Reports were completely revised in close consultation with Grondbank.
In addition, the Earth Resistance Experts Committee, led by Karl Vrancken, provided advice on the revised Technical Reports. To meet the demands of the stakeholders involved, the committee was expanded with two independent Dutch experts, Professor Jacob De Boer and PFAS expert Arjen Wintersen.
The Committee of Experts unanimously formulated various recommendations on how to deal with the contaminated soil. She confirmed that the standstill principle is respected and that the Oosterweel project even improves the pollution situation. The recommendations have meanwhile been converted into stricter criteria via the Technical Reports, which will be applied in the field.
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