A new CIRIA approach for learning and sharing information about site investigation

CIRIA’s Joanne Kwan shares some thoughts about a new forum for professionals to share and exchange information on site investigation. 

Recently there has been a real push by the government for upgrading  infrastructure and accelerating the delivery of new homes. This has created new opportunities for the construction industry. However, there are also the challenges of managing risks in the ground on sites that may have contamination and/or other problems such as poor ground conditions giving rise to geotechnical issues. Such issues can affect the programme and out turn costs on construction projects.  An effective site investigation can help minimise the risk of encountering “unforeseen” ground conditions and improve the viability of the entire redevelopment project.  

Investigation techniques have evolved substantially in the past decade, although the traditional approach of sampling and analysis is still applied to many projects. The introduction of telemetry, real time monitoring, hi-resolution characterisation, as well as more powerful data analysis and modelling techniques linked to BIM are not yet routine. There are also many cases where there is little communication and sharing of experience of SI activities for different purposes e.g. for land contamination and geotechnical reasons. 
  
CIRIA has started a new project which will create a forum for professionals to share and exchange information and experience on SI. The output of this project will include a series of events and web content to encourage professionals involved in site investigation (no matter if they are doing this for contaminated land, geotechnical and other reasons) to communicate better and work in a more coordinated manner. 

The project will also support industry by providing business-to-business networking and knowledge sharing, thereby promoting good practice and fostering collaboration to improve and develop SI techniques.

If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Joanne Kwan for more information.

Spaces are currently available at the CIRIA event 'Innovation for site investigation' on 18th April 2018.