The new Södra Änggården residential area

When Platzer transforms the Högsbo industrial area into the new Södra Änggården residential area, buildings need to be demolished and the land remediated. Sortera has been Platzer’s general contractor for demolition and land remediation in phase 4, which ran from the autumn 2023 until the summer 2024. 

Demolition and reuse 

The work began with the demolition of two properties totalling 18,000 m². Since Platzers aims to increase the proportion of recycling in the projects, Sortera dismantled and recovered, among other things, doors, ventilation units and fans, as well as bricks that were sorted from the demolition waste. The recycled material was sent to the company Rebygg, which receives and distributes recycled building materials. 

Excavation and site remediation 

The fact that the soil on old industrial sites needs to be remediated is more the rule than the exception, and in this case, the investigations showed that the soil contained Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals and traces of DDT. Since the site will be used for housing, after the remediation it needs to meet the requirements for sensitive land use (land intended for housing and playgrounds). This involves excavating the entire 13,000 m² area has down to a depth of five meters in some areas, and some of the excavated material has been used for backfilling. 

The excavated material was divided into different fractions that have been sent to approved reception facilities: 

• MKM concrete
• MKM soil
• IFA soil (excavation waste with contaminants)
• Stone-rich fractions 

Reduced number of empty truck journeys and reuse of rock masses 

The stone sorted from the excavation materials was crushed at Sortera’s own facility in order to be put to new use as CE-certified and quality-assured materials that can be used for, among other things, base layers and fill materials. The backfill material used for the property in Högsbo is such a material. 

The trucks that delivered the stone from Högsbo were allowed to take quality-assured crushed material with them for backfilling as much as possible. In this way, Sortera was able to reduce the total number of truck journeys and minimise carbon dioxide emissions. 

50,000 tonnes of excavated material sorted and transported away 

During demolition and site clearance, three excavators worked in parallel, with a maximum of 30 trucks removing a total of 50,000 tonnes of material. Sortera and Project Manager Niklas Jacobsen have extensive experience in handling large material flows. 

“Our strengths in cases like this are clearly our project management skills and collaborative spirit,” says Jacobsen. “We are good at applying new technology and modern methods, but above all we always strive for good communication and good cooperation, both with the customer and with our subcontractors.” 

“In this case, we have had different types of excavated material that have to be separated and transported to different locations. No matter how good the analysis is in advance, deviations always appear once you start digging. So when we encounter excavated material of a new nature, I want the excavator operator to stop so that we can take another sample before we continue. So it is important that everyone on site understands the overall picture and the purpose of the work.”