Case studies

• Customer: Faber Maunsell
• Project: The Maltings Shopping Centre
• Date: March 2007
• View survey results (pdf)

Carrying out development projects on shopping centres which are in general built on brown field sites, the record drawings for what is in the ground are generally very limited. To assist in the planning of these works getting a "heads up" as to what is in the ground greatly helps in the preliminary works programme required to clear the site for the new development. The structural design team also benefit from the information identified from these surveys as the position of their piling and foundation requirements can be thought through to allow for anomalies which can be identified by the below ground surveys, an example of this was a survey of a service yard which was to be developed, the below ground survey identified three large shafts which when excavated turned out to be the wells for the water supply for a brewery that had stood on the site previously, resulting in the piling positions being designed away from these shafts.

Summary is that I find the advantages of the below ground survey when working on brown field sites to be tremendously beneficial. The opportunity to identify obstructions that would normally cause a delay on site, knowing they are there and having the work to resolve the findings programmed in to the project really pays for itself. The experience to date has been very beneficial, it give us a headaches to sort out the findings but its better to do this at a design meeting rather than a site meeting.