Sediments in the harbor at Oslo were seriously contaminated during the last centuries as a result of industrial activities, dockyard operation and municipal wastewater as well as urban surface run-off.

A sediment layer varying in thickness from 0.1 to 4.5m is highly contaminated by heavy metals and organic contaminants. Redevelopment of old harbor sites as part of the Oslo city plan has been the subject of several studies during the last 15 years. The construction of a submersed road tunnel to redirect the main traffic away from the city centre required dredging in the most contaminated parts of the harbor and triggered an immediate need for remediation.

The Environment Commission of CEDA has established this award to stimulate the dissemination of good quality information related to dredging and the environment, including technical, regulatory and managerial aspects of dredging operations and dredged material management.

'The paper gives a good example of the dilemmas port authorities are facing all over Europe when old contaminated sediments have to be removed. It gives a good description of the port authority’s preferred solution, which is placement of the contaminated sediment in an underwater confined disposal facility (CDF) to be capped with clean material. The paper presents a lot of good information about the monitoring programme,' said Mr Jensen when presenting the Award to Ms Jørgensen.