Urban Renewal with the EU Project IRMA

Through the EU project IRMA, NIRAS is involved in developing better methods and tools that can reduce costs and impact on the environment through urban renewal. On 21st June 2007 the four-year EU project will be concluded with a one-day symposium in Brussels with a discussion of the experience and ideas for all the phases in urban renewal projects. Contact Sine Skov, ssk@niras.dk, for an invitation to the symposium.

High-value exploitation of demolition products

It has long been commonplace to reuse buildings and over 90 % of building waste is reused in Denmark today. However, there are still barriers for optimal reuse and cutting back on environmentally hazardous materials. Many urban renewal projects are characterised by thoughtlessness and unfocused logistics. The environmental advantages and financial gains imply that the demolition products are used for the highest-value purpose, that checks are kept on the quantities and that money is not wasted on superfluous transportation and loading. Maximal advantages assume good co-ordination of waste logistics and raw materials logistics. The message is quite simple: through urban renewal one has a great advantage environmentally and financially through reusing the local demolition products to the greatest extent possible.

IRMA and NIRAS

As a result of many years’ international network co-operation on reuse, NIRAS DEMEX and 15 other partners from a total of seven European countries took the initiative of submitting a project application for IRMA to the EU. This led to a total contract for 5.5 million € with 50 % EU backing and 50 % self-funding. The project was commenced in August 2003 and will be concluded in July 2007. The partners in the project represent building owners, consultants, demolition contractors, universities, laboratories and crushing contractors. All the main players in the building industry and the reuse/recycling industry are thereby involved in the IRMA project, which is concentrating an entire unique expertise on reuse and urban renewal. The project has developed the ”City Concept”, which has been tested and evaluated, including tests on two Danish projects – the development of the Carlsberg site in Copenhagen and the redevelopment of an old gasworks in Århus.

Reuse of the Carlsberg site

When Carlsberg moves part of its production to Fredericia in the next couple of years a piece of land the size of 39 football pitches will be vacated and this can become a new and throbbing district in the town. But before anything new can be built the Carlsberg site has to be cleared of buildings and production facilities. NIRAS, together with Carlsberg Ejendomme and the building owner consultant SBS, prepared a proposal for the reuse of the building materials on the Carlsberg site in Copenhagen. The proposal involves Carlsberg being able to save 6.7 million € by reusing the buildings most worthy of preservation and using the broken down products in its forthcoming buildings. Carlsberg aims to have finalised the plans for what is to be built on the land in Valby by spring 2007.

Further information:

Erik K. Lauritzen, phone 4810 4218, ekl@niras.dk

NIRAS DEMEX

Sine Skov, phone 4810 4438 ssk@niras.dk

NIRAS International Consulting