Fort Filips in the port of Antwerp, Belgium
From dumping ground to thriving biotope
Commissioned by the Port of Antwerp and Vlaamse Waterweg, we transformed the heavily polluted Fort Sint-Filips site into a thriving biotope together with our partners. Using an isolation technique, we tackled the site’s contamination by encapsulating the polluted soil and the fortress ruins within a 30-metre-deep underground wall of bentonite cement. This way, we prevented particles from passing through. This barrier was further reinforced with an impermeable foil, topped with a clean layer of pure earth.
To protect Antwerp and the surrounding port area from flooding, we constructed a robust flood protection system. This included a dyke, a higher flood wall and a groyne - a tidal dam perpendicular to the water flow. This slows down the water’s current and reduces the risk of mudflats and salt marshes - created by the tides and important for biodiversity in and around the Scheldt - being washed away. The result is a twenty-hectare zone of valuable tidal nature.
An Smet, Head of Planet Redevelopment
This project perfectly fits within our mission to bring complex projects to a successful end. Fort Sint-Filips requires expertise in various disciplines such as construction, environmental and hydraulic engineering. We have all that in-house. We are also fully committed to circular solutions for a better planet. We have transformed this blackspot in the Port of Antwerp into a new habitat. We stored the contamination on site, which is not only the most technically and economically feasible solution, but also avoids unnecessary transport to a treatment centre. In this way, we avoid CO2 emissions, an issue that is also close to our hearts.
Fort Sint-Filips in numbers
Did you know?
These works are part of the Flemish Government’s Sigma Plan to protect Flanders from flooding of the river Scheldt and to restore the rare river habitat.
For the construction of the dam, we reused dredged material previously dumped on the site.
A bentonite wall consists of exceedingly small particles and is therefore ideal to make a wall completely watertight. On this site, the wall connected to the Boom clay layer, about 30 metes deep, completely isolating the contamination from its surroundings.
While the 19th-century structures of the fortress are no longer accessible, its contours are reconstructed above ground.
