Work has begun on North Tyneside Council's scheme to remediate and reclaim the former Fenwick and Eccles colliery sites which will see around 270,000t of burning spoil extracted and replaced.
The 68-week site works, worth £5.3m, will see the burning spoil replaced with locally won clay at the Fenwick site where slurry lagoons will also be stabilized using lime and cement columns.
At the former Eccles colliery building foundations will be excavated and crushed and the culverted Briardene stream restored to its natural course.
Meanwhile the nearby former West Holywell colliery will see stabilization of mine shafts by grouting, 10,000t of contaminated material removed from the site and around 4,000m³ of Japanese knotweed removed to the borrow pit at Fenwick. A former waggonway will be capped with 15,000t of clay from the borrow pit and all three sites, totalling 30ha, will become public open space.
The sites are currently fenced off thanks to the burning material and lagoons up to 12m deep.
The borrow pit on the Fenwick site will be up to 12m deep and will be used to bury the encapsulated knotweed.
Carillion Regional Civil Engineering is the principal contractor and the Homes & Communities Agency is funding the overall £10m cost.
