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To bring the Waal dike back up to flood safety standards, it is being reinforced in several places between Wolferen and Sprok. This requires, among other things, dike clay. Delgromij is responsible for the supply of this clay and ensures that the knife cuts both ways: at locations where the clay is extracted, a sustainable area development with added social value takes place.
A total of 10,000 m3 of dike clay was delivered for reinforcing the Waal dike. "The clay comes from the Kievitsheuvel depot on the A15, a depot that was created at the time when the Betuwe Route was built," says Bas Dröge of Delgromij. "Although it is owned by the Forestry Commission, we market the clay and develop nature in exchange. The depot will later be planted into a climate forest by Staatsbosbeheer."
Delgromij is part of family company K3 and a market leader in the marketing of ceramic clay in the Netherlands. "In addition, we have extensive knowledge of and experience in applying clay for dike reinforcement. We have 40 extraction sites, spread across the country, to supply our customers with the clay they require. We always have direct access to supplies of clay," Dröge knows. "And that's just as well, because if you look, for example, at all the projects that are going to take place within the High Water Protection Program, a huge amount of dike clay will still be needed until 2028. We are therefore in constant dialogue with project developers, large infrastructure contractors and (semi-)public authorities. If a project releases more clay than can be used, we are usually called in to market it. It is also a good tool to reduce the cost of a project."
Dike clay is plentiful, but it requires an enormous 'paperwork' to extract and market it. Think of requirements concerning environmental legislation, permits at extraction sites, coordination with stakeholders, but also initiatives to leave the extraction area in a sustainable manner. According to Dröge, K3's great strength lies in its five divisions, which are complementary to each other in every respect. "In addition to clay, we also extract sand and gravel, process soil and dredged material, provide sampling, are environmentally skilled with ecologists and hydrologists, do soil drilling and have our own ship chartering office. Totally unique for a mineral extraction company is our area development division with its own landscape architects and employees who know everything there is to know about permitting processes to give a former mining area a sustainable use with added social value. All this means that we can often carry out a project from A to Z under our own management with only one point of contact for the client on the one hand, but also for the competent authority on the other. That is appreciated."
