Tuesday 23 June, the “BIGFOOT” river unit evacuated the first debris from the dismantling of Athletes’ Village to recycling centres. This mobilisation of waterways to facilitate river transport stems from a partnership between the Ile-de-France Region Préfecture, Voies Navigables de France (Inland Waterways of France), HAROPA Ports de Paris and SOLIDEO, allowing the latter, along with project managers, local authorities and companies involved on the work site, to contribute to environmental excellence.

Making the most of the debris from construction sites

The Athletes’ Village, nestled on the banks of the Seine, is less than 2 kilometres from two river ports. Since mid-June, SOLIDEO has the shared use of a dock (image above) for the disposal of site debris. In 15 days, 14,350 tonnes have already been moved to Bruyère-sur-Oise (95) and the Seine-Maritime to help produce the earth necessary for Athletes’ Village plantations and green spaces. This will be made possible after enrichment with organic and mineral ingredients and one or two years of maturing. The use of river transport will continue throughout the duration of the work on the Athletes’ Village and the destination of waste recovery will depend on the environmental nature of the surplus earth.

An ecological transport method

Each barge will participate in environmental excellence by limiting pollution and the carbon footprint of construction sites. The BRISE de MER, the CREDO, the JADE, the FATBOB, the TAF810 and the ACONIT, will follow the lead of BIGFOOT and facilitate the transport of construction site debris to their recycling centres. To date, 100% of earth from construction sites has been evacuated via the Seine at a rate of 1 barge per day, which can transport between 1,500 and 1,700 tonnes of material each. In total, almost 500,000 tonnes of debris will be evacuated!

River transport will also be favoured for delivering materials (aggregate, cement) and wood during the construction phases in 2022 and 2023.

Mooring dolphins for L’Ile-Saint-Denis

On the L’Ile-Saint-Denis side, at the beginning of the year, Voies Navigables de France carried out developments to allow the mooring of boats as close as possible to the construction site. Four mooring dolphins – metal poles anchored in the river bed – were thus installed on the small branch of the Seine to reduce the distance between the site and the barge loading area.