Mechanical behaviour and environmental impacts of a test road built marine dredged sediments
Résumé
A full scale test road was built with marine dredged sediments at the Dunkirk harbour, in the north of France. The first objective of this work was to evaluate the compatibility of this material with current practice used to build roads with standard materials. In the second time, the impacts of time on the mechanical behaviour and the concentration of contaminants in the leachates, such as trace metals and chlorides of the used material, were evaluated. In regards of the obtained results, the mechanical behaviour seems compatible with the technical properties targeted in the design stage. In terms of the environmental impacts, the concentrations of organic and inorganic pollutants were measured after leaching tests. The main pollutants and their respective concentration in leachates, except for chloride, were below the used threshold. After 1-year follow-up, the concentration of chloride does not seem to decrease. The experience gained shows, from a technical as an economical point of view, that the proposed methodology could constitute an interesting issue for dredged sediments management.