Outstanding Environmental Project
Liner For Hazardous Waste Landfill – Phase 1

  
   
   
 

 

Material Type: 60 mil Textured HDPE, GCL Bentomat DN, Geotextile and Geocomposite
Size: 1,263,600 sq. ft.

The first phase of construction at the U.S. Army CERCLA/Superfund Rocky Mountain Arsenal site in Commerce City was named Outstanding Environmental Project at this year's Gold Hard Hat Awards. The contest is coordinated by McGraw Hill Construction each year. The CLI project included a multi-layered landfill cover system for a 26-acre hazardous waste landfill.

This project utilized typical geosynthetics capping materials, such as a geocomposite gas vent layer, geosynthetic clay liner, HDPE geomembrane, and a non-woven geotextile cushion layer.

The most innovative portion of the project was the utilization of approximately 100,000 tons of recycled crushed concrete from the old Stapleton Airport runways. Following the construction of the new Denver International Airport, the old Stapleton Airport runways were demolished and crushed into a rock-like matrix consisting from stone dust, up to 12-inch diameter cobbles all consisting of crushed concrete. This recycled crushed concrete was utilized over the Landfill Cover System to provide a barrier layer against burrowing animals.

This project was the final stage of encapsulating over 1.2 million cu yds of hazardous waste at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and helped transform the superfund site into an Urban National Wildlife Refuge. The National Wildlife Refuge will be open to the public and provide educational programs for schools and the general public.