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Successful Technical Presentation….

Contaminant Contour Plot

Otherwise known as ‘understand your audience’.

We have recently completed a highly complex site investigation and detailed risk assessment of a public amenity site on behalf of a Local Authority. Our technical report, however, needed to be understood by a wide range of stakeholders, including regulators, consultants, site users and the general public. We used a range of graphical presentation methods in our report, cut the industry acronyms to a minimum and offered a report written in ‘plain English’. The result? Clear advice and a happy client, who described our report as ‘a model of site investigation & risk assessment communication’.

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Food Wholesaler/Distributor Retains Subadra

Subadra have been retained by a major food wholesaler/distributor to carry out a comprehensive audit/investigation of the fuel storage and supply infrastructure at a multi-site portfolio across the UK. Key to winning the contract was our ability to complete the project within a tight timescale. This is only possible because of our unique approach whereby every aspect of the project will be carried out using in house resources, from borehole drilling through to laboratory analysis; and, of course, our competitive rates!

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Tight Deadlines?

Tight Acquisition Deadline?

Sometimes you need a detailed ground investigation with large numbers of boreholes, utilising a variety of different investigation tools (drill rigs, plate bearing tests, pile probing etc), with data collected and assimilated over a period of days or even weeks, that delivers a detailed description of site geology and provides a well defined contaminant delineation.We can do this for you.

However, sometimes you need a basic no frills contamination survey that is both cost effective and done on a very fast turnaround.Here at Subadra we own and operate our own survey team, drill rigs, chemical analysis laboratory in addition to our team of highly skilled geotechnical and environmental consultants that are responsible for collating, assessing and the reporting the data we produce. This means we can carry out high quality, cost effective Phase One and Two contamination surveys within days.This service proves invaluable for may of out clients who are always on the lookout to purchase new sites to add to their portfolio and don’t want to lose out on a lucrative deal or, perhaps worse, get caught out by discovering contamination issues after the site has been purchased.

We recently carried out a survey at a filling station site in Hampshire that was instructed on a Friday at 4pm and we had carried out a below ground utilities survey, borehole investigation, groundwater monitoring and sampling, all analysis and data reported to the client by the following Thursday. Now how does that compare with the service you currently receive from your consultant?
Contract value: £4.5k
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Enthusing the Next Generation of Earth Scientists

Drilling at St Mary's School

When we discovered that Year 3/4 at St Mary’s CE Primary School in Amersham were learning about soils as their science topic this term we were pleased to put one of our drill rigs to a slightly more educational use. We offered to drill a shallow borehole in the playing field to demonstrate the soil profile below the school. We provided three soil cores in plastic liners for later inspection in class. Our drill team has never been cheered on by anyone before – perhaps there are a few budding engineering geologists in Amersham.

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SPOSH? POSH? What’s in an Acronym?

Drilling with Terrier

SPOSH? POSH? (insert baffling acronym of your choice here). Sometimes our industry really makes a meal of what should be a simple process. How do you determine if a site is contaminated or not? We think the answer is simple: do a decent site investigation!

We have recently been working at site that proved to be a classic example of a ‘cheap’ site investigation saving nothing. The original investigation was carried out by others four years ago. After many other consultants were hired but failed to provide any clear answers (or any answers at all) we were commissioned to break the impasse.

We constructed 180 boreholes on a 5m grid using one of our dynamic sampling rigs. Boreholes and sampling locations were surveyed using GPS allowing us to develop a 3D contaminant profile of the site. Finally
sufficient information is now available to allow our client to make sensible decisions regarding future use and/or remedial strategy for the site. All this without resorting to any obscure and baffling acronyms.

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Out on the Wiley, Windy Moors

Drilling in the Rain

December saw us out in the middle of Dartmoor drilling water wells. Frail insfrastucture and maintenance issues  had driven one Devonian farmer to drinking water distraction. The water well supplying their property was a shared supply and each year they were expected to contribute to the maintenance of the lengthy, unreliable water pipe. We were commissioned to design and install a new well to serve just their property, together with all associated pipework, electrics, buffer tank etc as a ‘turnkey’ package.

We used modern installation techniques and our Comacchio drill rig, capable of drilling in excess of 100m, to construct a 46m deep borehole lined with a modern PVC screen, a graded filter pack, cattleproof/watertight inspection chamber, ducting into the property, cabling, pipe work, pressure vessel, on demand water flow controls, piped into the existing supply and insultated against the hardest frost. All  works were completed in only four days.

If you’d like to know more about our water well installation service or would like a quote for your own water supply, please call Duncan Eastland (Tel. 01296 739431).

 

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Pile Probing Record Smashed

Tom joins the 100ft club

Tom Petzing, one of our Geoprobe operators, last week smashed our long-held drilling record completing 218m (yes, that really is two hundred and eighteen metres) of pile probing in a single day. The deepest location was probed to a depth of 32.4m, or 106ft in old money, which means that Tom joins our Managing Director as a member of the elite Geoprobe 100ft club. Well done Tom, the t-shirt is in the post!

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Black Gold?

Sadly not in this case. But what do you do if you’re digging a hole and it fills with a horrible mixture of black fuel and water? Call Subadra of course! We are able to guide you with all aspects of contaminated ground from waste disposal or how to minimise the impact on your development programme to how to discharge your planning conditions.
The site  in the photo is a filling station that is currently undergoing a full site redevelopment. When the contractor opened up the forecourt to remove the below ground fuel tanks the excavation filled with a heady mix of petrol and diesel that had accumulated over the years around the off-set fill points.
We were on-site within 2hours of being contacted. We collected water and soil samples from the excavation that were run through our in-house hydrocarbon laboratory. The results were issued within 48hours allowing the contractor to efficiently deal with the soil disposal and avoid costly delays to the works programme.

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Subadra win multi-site forecourt investigation package

Subadra have recently been awarded a package of investigation works by one of the major oil companies.  We were selected based upon our continued excellent working relationships with the end client and their project managers , continuing to provide a high quality service and as always being able to offer cost effective site investigation services.

Particular praise was made of the quality of our tender submission, highlighting key areas of excellence and capabilities which enabled the client to quickly and easily conclude that we were the service provider best suited to complete the works.

The works package includes investigating 12 retail filling sites using our GeoProbe direct-push drilling system.  The majority of the chemical analysis will be completed by our UKAS accredited laboratory. The reporting deadlines for the package is six weeks from the point of instruction.  Contact value: ~£55k+

There are always cost savings to be made when multi-site packages are being completed and we like to pass these savings onto the client.  If you have a small network of filling station sites or are a ‘Top-50’  operator and need an environmental survey get in touch to discuss our highly competitive rates.

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Foundations for Key City Data Centre

Whilst much of our work in carried out in the provinces we sometimes dabble with high finance in the City.

Subadra played a key role in the development of an £80 million multi-storey data centre facility in London’s docklands area. We were brought in at the inception of the project to carry out a geotechnical and environmental investigation to determine ground conditions.

Our investigation comprised a network of boreholes across the development area that were used to collect soil samples for analysis and groundwater and hazardous gas monitoring points.

The site was especially tricky geotechnically, comprising areas of in-filled docks, some highly contaminated and others containing very soft silts and clays.

We used the data to assist with foundation design and the classification of waste soil.

Contract value: £20-50k