Treatment of wash water from road tunnels.

• Main Author: Byman, Lina
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Mark- och vattenteknik (flyttat 20130630) 2012
• Subjects: tunnel wash; wash water; water treatment; sedimentation; total suspended solids; highway runoff
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-171816

Tunnels have become increasingly important in the development of road networks to meet rising transportation demands. Washing of road tunnels must be performed regularly to ensure traffic safety. The washing procedure generates significant amount of polluted wash water. Before discharge to a receiving water body, treatment is necessary to avoid potential degradation of the water quality. In this study, 12 in situ sedimentation experiments were conducted to evaluate treatment efficiency of sedimentation, with and without the addition of chemical flocculent. The findings showed that untreated tunnel wash water was highly polluted with total suspended solids (804-9690 mg/l), PAHs (0.4–29 μg/l) and heavy metals. Most pollutants were associated with the particulate material. Significant correlations (r2 > 0.95) were found between suspended solids and metals. Efficient removal of pollutants was possible by sedimentation with addition of flocculent. Within 20 hours of sedimentation low concentrations were reached of suspended solids (<15mg/l), PAHs (<0.1 μg/l), Cd (<0.05 μg/l), Cr (< 8 μg/l), Hg (<0.02 μg/l), Pb (<0.5 μg/l) and Zn (< 60 μg/l). The results confirm the possibility to treat tunnel wash water with sedimentation and flocculation and to discharge treated wash water to a recipient, provided particular attention is given to very sensitive water bodies.