Description of Work:
Geo-Solutions installed a Permeable Reactive Barrier (PRB) at a manufacturing facility in Eastern Illinois. The barrier is 225 feet long by 20 feet deep and 24 inches wide. This PRB was installed to treat a plume contaminated with TCE and other chlorinated solvents used at this facility. The PRB was designed with an iron-sand mixture as the reactive media. Geo-Solutions blended the reactive iron filings and sand in a mobile mixer on site. The PRB was installed using the bio-polymer slurry method of excavation. The iron-sand mixture was placed using earthmoving equipment and a tremie pipe.
The design of the barrier included 3 different iron-sand ratios to treat different concentrations of the contaminants. Geo-Solutions used end-stop beams during construction to segregate the sections of the PRB.
Additional work included removal and replacement of asphalt pavement, relocation of some utilities, and landscape restoration. Key challenges on this project included multiple utility crossings and working in a confined area of a parking lot and adjacent to the facilities buildings. This project was completed under Level D hazardous waste protection.