Enquirer

From: William Kerr
Organisation: Nottingham Trent University
Date: 16th March 1999
Subject: Site investigation strategy

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Request

I am studying Construction Management at Nottingham Trent University. As part of my course I have to find information on site investigations.

The sort of thing I am looking for is: basic strategy for the implementation of a site investigation and its procurement.

Yours Sincerely
William Kerr

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1st response

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Dear William

There is a very brief 'bare-bones' guide to Site Investigation Procedures on the Website, but if you need more flesh then have a look at:-

1. The Institution of Civil Engineers produces a series of design and practice guides, one of which Contaminated Land investigation, assessment and remediation (1994) (ISBN 0 727 720 163) covers this subject.

2. British Standards Institution, Code of Practice for Site Investigation, 1981, BS 5930 there is apparently a new draft now available.

3. Scottish Enterprise, 1994, How to Investigate Contaminated Land - Site Investigation

4. CLR Published Research Reports - CLR 2 Guidance on preliminary site inspection of contaminated land. Report by Applied Environmental Research Centre Ltd. Volume 1. DOE, 1994. £7. Volume 2. DoE, 1994. £12

5. There is some useful material on the FOCIL website (Forum on Contamination in Land).
   They recently held a half-day seminar (27th January 1999) in conjunction with Institution of Civil Engineers entitled This Brown and Pleasant Land - A Framework for Success in which one of the speakers (Hugh Mallet of Aspinwalls) covered the basic strategy of a site investigation.

   He stated that the characteristics of good site investigations were :

   1. clear objectives
   2. a sensible strategy
   3. provision for uncertainty

   He touched on the variable quality of site investigations and highlighted two recent Association of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Specialists (AGS) leaflets - available on the AGS website namely :

   • Guidelines for Good Practice in Site Investigation
   • Code of Conduct for Site Investigation

   His basic message was that a well researched and interpreted phase 1 risk assessment, (which including a full review of the site history and a walkover survey) could reduce overall project risk and cost overruns.

   This unfortunately is not 'taken on-board' by some developers who prefer to underspend on the initial site investigation - only to pay out far more later, than they would have saved, if they had done it properly first-time round!

   cheers

   Micky