RC105 MarApr2023 - Magazine - Page 26
REMEDIATION
to help the construction industry manage soil responsibly while contributing to the rehabilitation of our quarry
for our communities,” Demix Agrégats general manager
Dominic Martel said when the centre opened. “It will
allow Demix to offer its clients the possibility of working
with Englobe in the management of their soils, while
continuing to get aggregates from the quarry.”
For his part, Côté says the new treatment centre has
increased Englobe’s processing capacity by some 50,000
metric tonnes. It also allows Englobe to offer its customers additional options and more convenient access to its
services in the Greater Montreal region, where it has
existing facilities in both the city’s east end and at the new
Vitaliterre landfill site in the town of L’Épiphanie, a halfhour drive northeast of Montreal.
“This project is beneficial not only for Demix and Englobe but for the construction industry as a whole,” says
Côté. “It broadens our options and represents a major big
step forward in our efforts to find sustainable, innovative
and responsible solutions for the treatment of contaminated soils.”
Credit for the novel project goes to employees of
both Demix and Englobe who were college classmates
before entering the workforce. “Whenever we meet up,
we always end up talking shop: what work is like on
our sector, what the constraints are,” Nicolas Gagné, a
continuous improvement supervisor with Demix, says
in a short video presentation about the project on CHR
“It’s a win-win-win for the companies involved,
the environment and for society as a whole. We’re already
looking at expanding the model to other quarries.”
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RENEW CANADA – MARCH/APRIL 2023
Canada’s website. “That got us thinking that we could
pool our companies’ expertise to innovate and develop a
decontamination site in situ.”
The Laval quarry seemed like the perfect place for a
collaboration project. Located geologically in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, in a sector of the Chazy Group, Laval
formation that consists of limestone alternating with shale
interbeds, the quarry began supplying aggregates with
physico-mechanical characteristics of Type 2A —which
correspond to construction materials standards—for the
Greater Montreal region when it first opened in 1925.
The south part of the property, which was one of four
quarries in operation in Laval, was acquired in 1973
by Demix, which was then a division of St. Lawrence
Cement. The company bought part of the northern quarry
sector in 1974, and the rest in 1996.
But then, the limits of the perimeter had been reached
and operation of the deep rock was focussed increasing in
the north sector, with the crushing and screening process
located in the south end of the quarry.
“The north sector has enough reserves for another 50
years, so we’re still blasting and operating there,” says
Garant. “But there was no more good geology, no more
benches of limestone rock in the southern sector. So, it
made sense for us to transfer the aggregate making plant
there.”
At the same time, he added, rehabilitation efforts began
in the southern sector. “It’s very valuable land, being
right in the heart of Laval,” says Garant. He added that
once rehabilitated in a decade’s time, the property will be
used ostensibly for a city park and other residential and
commercial uses.
That project will likely resemble another urban development project currently being elaborated for another old
limestone quarry just a kilometre away to the west.
Dubbed Carré Laval, that project aims to decontaminate a 37-hectare site—which is only five per cent the size
RENEWCANADA.NET
ENGLOBE
The soil treatment
facility features a
large impermeable
base or treatment
pad that is equipped
with blowers to
optimize and
control the rate of
biodegradation of
contaminated soils
and sediments.
