The four companies that make up the ARGE MZ Hueningen consortium with details of the respective shares.
Published on 01/07/2021
The project to resume remediation was put out to tender. The project team at Novartis selected a joint venture, ARGE MZ Hueningen, comprising the companies Marti AG, Marti Infra AG, Züblin Umwelttechnik GmbH and Strabag Umwelttechnik GmbH.
The remediation project team established a revised project organization with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. The project team also defined additional internal resources including HSE, finance and communication, to ensure the necessary expertise and resources were aligned to resume remedial activities. These steps guaranteed both better cohesion between the various disciplines and a team of experts on whom the project director and the steering committee could rely. Supervision of the operation became more transparent. In particular, corrective measures could be implemented more rapidly.
ERM GmbH was selected to manage site control and coordination, including coordination with Novartis HSE. Together with Novartis HSE, ERM developed a detailed health and safety program before the remediation work recommenced. ERM had the day-to-day HSE responsibility on the site; Novartis HSE conducted weekly health and safety walkthroughs of the site, which had already been in place prior to the shutdown.
Three safety zones
Three different safety zones were established throughout the site (white, gray and black). A different degree of personal protective equipment (PPE) was worn in each zone. This practice was the same as initially implemented in the project.
In the white zone, where the offices were located, no particular PPE was worn. In the gray zone – the general remediation area – workers wore PPE such as hard hats, steel-capped shoes and long-sleeved clothing. In the contaminated black zone, workers were equipped with breathing apparatus or self-contained equipment.
Remediation involved several high-risk activities, such as working at heights, working in confined spaces and conducting earthworks. At the peak of the remediation work, nine people were working inside the tents operating different machinery (excavators and dumpers). Most of the time, however, two to three people were working inside the tents operating the earthwork machinery.
