Steel with low environmental impact

On Rijkswaterstaat's Schiphol, Amsterdam, Almere road extension, ArcelorMittal has supplied steel in the various projects. In the fifth and final section of the program, the A9 Badhoevedorp - Holendrecht, ArcelorMittal is also making a substantial contribution. The steelmaker is expected to deliver over 16,000 tons of steel in a time frame of just four months. And it won't stop there. An interview with Roel Bijlard of ArcelorMittal about this gigantic operation. 

ArcelorMittal is a familiar face on the project. "Spread over 2022, we have been able to supply some 4,000 tons of steel for several smaller structures," Bijlard begins. "However, the focus of the operation for us is in the first two quarters of 2023. Between February and June, we delivered over 16,000 tons of steel sheet piling to construction consortium VeenIX. In addition to the sheet piling, ArcelorMittal also supplies the combi wall. "It involves 2,200 tons of tubular piles with lock (914x16mm and 914x20mm), of which 1,800 tons are for temporary application and 400 tons as final work. We are also producing another 1,100 tons of bored piles in a diameter of 457 with wall thicknesses between 10 and 16mm. So for this project we are supplying almost all the products in our production range. And that has quite an impact, although we manage it well." 

Sustainable (re)use of steel 

Of the 16,000 tons of steel sheet piling, 9,000 tons will be used for temporary structures. The remaining 7,000 tons of sheet piling is installed with a permanent function. "For the temporary structures, we often offer a rental or buy-back contract. This guarantees that we take the materials back into our inventory after the project is completed. The temporary combi wall is also bought back by ArcelorMittal after the project is completed. All these materials can then be used again in future projects. Thus, for this project too, we supply both used and new boards from our stock in the Netherlands. The remainder will be supplemented with newly produced sheet piles from the factory in Luxembourg. This combination was also chosen because it involves such a huge quantity in a short period of time. This also makes it a logistical challenge, with us delivering to the project site both by barge and by axle." 

EcoSheetPile™ 

The delivery of 20,000 tons is exclusively intended for the construction of the sunken location in Amstelveen. "Hopefully it won't stop there, because quite a few sheet piles will also go into the ground in the final phase of this project," says Bijlard. ArcelorMittal has also supported construction consortium VeenIX in calculating the sheet piles with respect to sustainability and the end-of-life scenario. "We drew as realistic a picture as possible and presented it to the combination. Because it involves many temporary structures, much of the steel can later be reused elsewhere. This has a major impact on the ultimate environmental impact of the project. Moreover, the sheet piles we supply are produced from approximately 100% scrap in an electric arc furnace, including the (used) sheet piles from stock. This leads to a much lower environmental impact (430 kg CO₂ per ton) compared to sheet piles from a blast furnace (about 2,500 kg CO₂ per ton). Currently, we can also supply sheet piles from scrap produced on 100% green power, reducing the impact even further to 360 kg CO2 per ton. For both products, the EcoSheetPile™ and EcoSheetPile™ Plus (on 100% green power), the EPDs were recently published for the Dutch market."