Operating under a joint appointment to the vendor and purchaser, both major PLC’s, BRD had to employ the full range of investigation techniques at a large site on the outskirts of London.
The site was exceptionally sensitive with part situated upon a public water abstraction from the underlying major aquifer. The long development history, topography and sub-surface structures present at the site further complicated the planned ground investigation. All this meant that the investigation was similarly complex with the full range of drilling techniques employed. Boreholes were forwarded by hand held window sampling, windowless sampling, cable percussive drilling, rotary open hole drilling and rotary coring. Not only that, but trial pits were forwarded by hand, JCB3CX backhoe loader and a 20T tracked excavator!
The BRD investigation followed a desk based review of three previous phases of ground investigation, undertaken by three different consultants, that had been conducted at the site. BRD identified that the previous investigations had focused too much on a problem landfill area and had neglected other important site features. The BRD investigation revealed mis-interpretation of the ground conditions previously and identified significant geotechnical ground hazards to redevelopment of the site.