On-site soil remediation in North Brabant

Published January 27, 2026

In the past, the site mainly produced chemical products, powders, and metal wire. These served as semi-finished products for lamps, fluorescent tubes, and picture tubes.

Contamination situation

Soil testing shows that both the soil and groundwater are contaminated with metals, including molybdenum, cadmium, and zinc. The contamination is mainly found in the top half meter of the soil, with peaks of up to 6 meters below ground level.

From request and quotation to implementation

The work basically involves excavating and transporting approximately 16,900 m³ / 27,000 tons of contaminated soil to the cleaner, in combination with the necessary wellpoint drainage and purification. A significant part of the financial risk lies in the disposal of the soil. In order to obtain more certainty and to better identify the risks, the client carried out additional soil investigations during the tendering process.

As a result, the tendering process took quite some time. The client put the request out to tender privately on multiple occasions. Ultimately, Verhoeve emerged as the best bidder and the agreement was signed on October 30.

The implementation

Work commenced fairly quickly after the agreement was signed. During the execution of the work, the client also carried out additional soil investigations. This resulted in smaller excavation contours than originally planned, meaning that less contaminated soil had to be transported to the cleaner. This resulted in considerable savings for the client.

Sewer system

There are various sewers on site that need to be removed. This includes part of the sewer that contains asbestos, which we have removed in accordance with the applicable regulations.

Planning

In the first week of December, the drainage system was installed and the groundwater purification system was delivered and mobilized. The work will be completed in January.

Soil remediation at Eindhoven site by Verhoeve Nederland

Published January 27, 2026

The site is located in an inner-city area in Eindhoven that is undergoing extensive redevelopment. Prior to the new construction, Verhoeve Nederland was asked to carry out soil remediation using direct push injections.

Contamination situation

The area to be remediated covers 4,100^m² to a maximum depth of 20 m below ground level and is contaminated with VOCL. The total volume of soil to be treated is 33,000^m³.

Remediation measures

The work consisted of performing 418 direct push injections to a maximum depth of 20 m below ground level, with a distance of 5 meters between each injection. A total of 29,000 kg of EHC substrate containing nutrients and bacteria was injected to accelerate the chemical reduction of the VOCL and sulfate present and to stimulate biological degradation.

These quantities, in particular, posed the greatest challenge for the project given the short timeframe of 12 weeks for implementation. Verhoeve therefore deployed multiple teams and multiple injection techniques simultaneously.

During the execution, highly compacted sand layers proved to cause a lot of friction, which presented a number of technical challenges. Drill bits had to be replaced regularly because they were damaged, as shown in the photo below.

Planning

Due to the urgent nature of the project, work commenced immediately after the contract was awarded in the last week of September 2025. The site was cleared immediately before the 2025/2026 Christmas break. The project was completed in 10 weeks thanks to the deployment of multiple teams and machines.

In parallel with the injections, careful coordination of the work phases enabled the construction contractor to start work on the K&L infrastructure.