Landowners and developers are often surprised by what lies beneath their feet. On the surface it may look like a perfect piece of land for development, but a little bit of research and some initial ground investigation often reveals unexpected challenges and complexities.
This is where we come into our own. We expect the unexpected. And more importantly help our clients resolve any issues, allowing them to proceed with the development opportunity and maximise their commercial return.
One recent example from a site in the Midlands suggested unrecorded shallow historical coal mine workings at between 4m to 12m below existing ground level. Our specialist team recommended ‘drill and grout’ as the best solution to stabilise ground conditions before construction could begin. The 10-week programme of work included:
- Drilling over 900 treatment and investigation boreholes across the site.
- Pressure grouting areas where the ground integrity had been compromised by historic coal workings.
- Stripping the site for inspection of the natural soils to identify potential unrecorded mine entries.
- Investigation and treatment of two potential unrecorded mine entries which were proven to be between 75m and 102m deep, but which turned out to be deep exploration boreholes.
- Monitoring the pressure and volume of the grout being pumped into the mine workings to determine when the ground had been suitably stabilised.
All the work is now complete, allowing the developer to start construction on the site.
If you have any development or construction projects, then please get in touch to find out how we can help and save both time and costs. Please use your main point of contact at GRM or for new enquiries email richard.upton@grm-uk.com or call 01283 551249.