Mickleham Road, Greenvale, is located 25km north of Melbourne CBD in the City of Hume LGA. Over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in housing developments and population growth in the region. The Mickleham Road Upgrade includes the addition of extra lanes, installation of new traffic lights, upgrading intersections along with building better walking and cycling connections.

The Challenge

An estimated 1000m³ of non-destructive digging (NDD) slurry was going to be generated in the first 3 months of the project. With the closest disposal facility being a 90-minute round trip, productivity and safety needed to be addressed. BMD sought to identify opportunities to implement aspects of the Victorian Government’s ecologIQ program on the project. Additionally, BMD is committed to corporate sustainability through integrating social, community and environmental considerations in how they do business.

The Solution

The ZWS site-based treatment plant addressed all the challenges head-on. Trucks could dump within the site compound and be back carrying out NDD work within less than 30 minutes saving an hour of unproductive time. This meant that heavy trucks did not contribute to congestion, noise, dust and nuisance on local roads while improving safety outcomes. Processed materials such as gravel, sand and clean water, could be reused on-site, reducing the cost and inconvenience of bringing virgin materials to the site.

The Outcome

BMD along with its client VicRoads and the Major Roads Program Victoria (MRPV) team were delighted with the results obtained through implementing this innovative, Australian first. Whilst the initial estimate of 1000m³ wasn’t reached due to project changes more than 395,000 litres of NDD slurry was processed. The ZWS generated 215.5 tonnes of reusable clean fill along with 178 kilolitres of clean water which itself was recycled through the NDD activity or ultimately used for dust suppression on the site.

Additionally, the project achieved an overall reduction of approximately 66% in carbon emissions, as compare with conventional dig and dump methodologies.

About ZWS

ZWS is a site-based, sustainable, waste management solution. Slurry waste from NDD operations is discharged directly to the Zero Waste Site (ZWS) mobile treatment plant where the liquid fraction is removed, treated in situ and reused for further NDD work. Fines, including sands, aggregates and cake are stockpiled in a spadable consistency ready for reuse or removal from site using more efficient transport combinations and lower cost disposal. The ZWS offers a comprehensive, circular, environmentally friendly, sustainable solution for NDD waste management; as well as providing significant cost and time-saving benefits along with better safety and community outcomes.

ZWS solution is a mobile, small footprint, sealed mechanical separating and dewatering system that provides in the certainty of outcome, regardless of external environmental conditions. We are also able to provide detailed assessments of the vehicular movement reductions and improvement in net embodied carbon associated with the activities being performed, compared to a conventional base case scenario.