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Back to School

We were recently appointed to complete Geo-Environmental Investigations at two new school sites, to be constructed using the latest modular construction methods.

Our investigation involved 100m of linear drilling, environmental and geotechnical laboratory testing, over 50m of dynamic probing, soakaway testing, trial pits, CBR tests, Plate Bearing Tests, Topographic surveys, CCTV surveys and utility surveys. All the site works were completed within 3 days and reports issued within 2 weeks.
Surely that gets an A*!

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It’s What You Can’t See….

Spot The Buried Tank!

We were asked to carry out an environmental ground investigation at a disused transport depot. Not surprisingly this identified diesel contamination at ~2m below ground level.

There was no sign of any obvious contamination source and given the site’s previuous use as a transport depot, we thought it likely that an abandoned below ground fuel tank might be present.

We therefore went back to the site and carried out a shallow trial pitting exercise which revealed……well, you can see for yourself.

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Making a Splash

With warmer weather arriving, we received a timely request from Micasa to assist them with the design and construction of a swimming pool for a residential client. All in a day’s work for our Terrier drill rig, which is particularly suited to this work, having a small footprint and being able to pass through a standard doorway. The only problem: our site team were left imagining taking a refreshing dip in the pool, which won’t be completed for a few months yet.

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Pot of Gold

They say there is a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow.

We aren’t sure our Geoprobe drillrig qualifies as that, but we liked the photo and thought we’d share it.

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We Never Sleep

The nights are drawing in and daylight is at a premium. This can limit the hours available for sitework. Or rather it could until recently. We’ve just completed a four week long refit and refurbishment of our drill rigs. This has included fitting task lighting ensuring that we can work long into the night – or even all night of the job requires it.

For more information please contact Angus Gale – 07748358304

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Hedging Your Bets?

Can You Spot Our Drill Rig?

When a client rang and said they needed boreholes in a densely overgrown area, located up a high-sided kerb behind some hedges, we knew we had just the drill rig for the job. After checking for below-ground utilities, we completed seven boreholes locations to 4m depth in a single day. Naturally, we left the site clean and tidy, with a happy client.

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Hollow Stem Augers

Up Close and Personal – The Business End of a Hollow Stem Auger

The site investigation industry has, traditionally, relied on light cable percussion (generally known as shell and auger) drilling. This is slow, messy and crude providing low quality geotechnical and environmental samples at best. Thankfully, these days it isn’t the only option available to you.
The majority of our general site investigation drilling is done using hollow stem rotary methods. These provide signficantly better quality data with minimal sample disturbance, even in the toughest of conditions. This week we were working at a site underlain by glacial and millstone grit cobbles, sand and terrace gravels in a sandy clay matrix.  We drilled five boreholes to their target depth on 8m in one working day – something that might have taken a shell and auger crew a week – minimising the disruption to our client’s business which was able to remain open throughout.

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Why Coring Isn’t Boring

Core Bit

It probably comes as no surprise that it takes a very different skillset and completely different equipment to core through rock as opposed to boring through the sand and clay soils that are more commen near the ground surface.

The correct core bit (i.e. the part of the drill string which cuts the rock) selection is the key to obtaining high quality quality core samples. Each rock type requires a specific core bit to cut it cleanly and efficiently. So, to achieve the best results, we carry a range of different core bits with us at all times. Our drilling crew recently used our T6 coring barrel to core to depths of 25m in a range of geology from conglomerates to slate and everything in between.

So, you might say that coring is not boring. Fact!

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When Your Protection Fails….

Overdrilling CP

Not that kind of protection! We’re talking about cathodic protection of fuel pipes and tanks.

Decommissioning and replacing defunct cathodic protection ground beds requires an element of precision and brute force. Our first job is usually locating the existing beds. This can be no small task on a 30 hectare oil terminal site! The redundant beds were installed over 30 years ago and records are sparse.

We used radio detection methods to accurately locate the old redundant vertical ground beds to the required accuracy of +/-50mm. We need to be that accurate in order to successfully overdrill the beds.
Unusually, on our most recent project, our client asked us to drill through the connecting cables rather than removing them. The cables were isolated by a field engineer prior to us starting work and all our works were carried out under a permit to dig.
To overdrill the existing beds we brought in a shell and auger rig, drilling 350mm boreholes to 5m depth. This effectively decommissioned the existing redundant ground beds to make way for the new ones. With the first stage of the project complete, we are now back on site with our Comacchio rotary rig drilling much deeper boreholes in which we will be installing new anodes. Updates to follow.

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Where There’s Muck There’s Brass

Last week we undertook window sampling and installed monitoring wells at one of the largest recycling processing depots in the UK. Have you ever wondered what happens to your recycling after it gets taken away? Well it will likely end up at a processing centre similar to this one, where the waste is separated, segregated and prepared for recycling.
It was eye opening to see the scale of the operation. Usually when we drill, our rig is one of the bigger vehicles on site, but this time our van mounted Geoprobe was dwarfed by some of the other machines on site.