ANEFA’s team arrived at Granulats Vicat, the French pilot site of the project DigiEcoQuarry, on Tuesday, 24th of August. The day started with a visit around the site, Fenouillet, where the facilities were explained, as well as the casuistry of the quarry.
Originally, Fenouillet was located in the surroundings of Toulouse, but nowadays, as the city has dramatically grown, it is right in the middle of an industrial area. To give the reader an idea, right next door there is a shop of the French sports giant, Decathlon and opposite we can find both McDonald’s and Burger King.
There is no excavation on this site but the washing of materials brought to it. On the other hand, waste is also stored here, which the company treats and uses as backfilling in other of their quarries. This is due to the strategic location of the site.
In the afternoon the team got to know another quarry property of Granulats Vicat, Carbonne.
It must be highlighted the great rehabilitation plan that is being carried out by Vicat in both sites. In Fenouillet, they are building land walls, growing grass, and conditioning a lake, to mate the quarry better looking for their local community. While in Carbonne, a useless land, a former cornfield, has been turned into a huge lake. It even has a restaurant and water adventure activities, such as water air mats, and water skiing!
On the afternoon, as well as on the following morning, meetings were held with the workers of the quarries. They detailed their KPIs, procedures, and stated what they expect from DIGIECOQUARRY.