In July 2022, following the floods that hit the province of Liège hard, the Walloon government entrusted Spaque, its operational arm for polluted soil management, with several emergency missions.

The first involved evacuating waste carried by the waters, temporarily transported and stored at three sites in the Liège region (Wandre, Engis and A601 in Herstal). In 5 months, the Spaque evacuated a total of almost 150,000 tonnes of waste of all kinds (wood, metal, plastic, etc.) to treatment facilities. 70% of waste was recycled (metal, wood, etc.) and the remaining 30% was incinerated for energy production.

Once the waste had been removed, Spaque began evacuating the soil carried away by the floods, which had been temporarily stored by the affected municipalities (3,000 tonnes at Trooz, 30,000 tonnes at Chaudfontaine, 20,000 tonnes at Engis…). This soil, in turn, was transported and stored on the A601 freeway, becoming the symbol and essential tool for post-flood management. Along the 9 kilometers of this disused freeway, waste made way for soil. On average, 1,000 tonnes of soil were trucked in every day. The highway quickly reached saturation point. Almost 50,000 tonnes were already stored there, the maximum allowed by the storage permit. Before being able to accept new soil, Spaque planned to treat the soil already stored on site. At this point, SPAQUE commissioned SARPI Remediation to carry out this large-scale work.

Work began in August, due to the building’s vacations, with a phase dedicated to the installation and characterization of all soil already delivered. For soil that could be recycled, screens were installed on site to separate soil from waste and stone. Once screened, the soil was sent to recycling centers to be processed, analyzed and reused for different purposes depending on its quality. The first evacuations of soil from the A601 began at the beginning of September.

The sorting, screening, loading and transport work involved removing from the A601:

• +/- 3,000 tonnes of all-purpose waste initially mixed in the soil,
• +/- 12,000 tonnes of inert materials,
• and over 85,000 tonnes of soil sent for recycling or treatment.

In August 2023, one year after work began, Sarpi Remediation was proud to announce that the site was once again completely cleared.

Thank you to all the employees and subcontractors who made this possible!