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!
Tight Deadlines?
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
Enthusing the Next Generation of Earth Scientists
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.
Mother’s Ruin – Piling Probing at Bombay Sapphire’s New Gin Distillery
The Bombay Spirits Company are building a new gin distillery and visitors’ centre on the site of an old paper mill in Laverstoke, Hampshire.
The mill is registered by English Heritage and is considered of significant historical importance; during the first half of the century the site held the license to print money for the Bank of England. Wherever possible existing buildings are being retained and restored to their former glory. However, the mill was first established on the site in the early 1700s so many of the buildings need some serious TLC before they can again become usable. This includes improvements to foundations in some cases.
Subadra were called in to assist in the redevelopment, Project Manta, as a specialist in ground conditions and foundations to carry out pile probing around the perimeter and inside of one of the old mill buildings located on the banks of the River Test, which flows through the centre of the site.
We probed 25 locations in a single day using one of our highly manoeuvrable tracked drilling rigs, which proved perfect for the job. We identified shallow obstructions at several locations, allowing the project engineers to revise their piling plan and ultimately reduce costs and delays to the foundation improvement works.
We then carried out plate bearing tests, prior to piling, to confirm the surface soils could provide a suitable platform for the piling rig.
Plate Bearing Tests for Wind Turbines
SSE Renewables, in partnership with the Port of Tilbury, is installing four wind turbines at Tilbury Port in Essex. The project is currently under construction. Once complete, their wind power will provide 50% of the Port’s energy needs. But late on Wednesday the project ran into problems. No plate bearing tests had been carried out to assess the stability of the outriggers of the giant crane that would lift the turbine nacelle and blades into place. We were contacted at 1pm the following day and were on site within 2 hours. We completed plate bearing tests at each crane location and by the time we left site at 8.30pm the first crane was moving into position, the project back on track.
For more information or to arrange plate bearing testing, please contact Duncan Eastland Tel. 01296 739431
Out on the Wiley, Windy Moors
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).
Water, Water Everywhere
We are currently assisting in the treatment of construction wastewater from a filling station redevelopment in Dorset. Working with the primary works contractor, we provided a system that is capable of pumping and treating high volumes of hydrocarbon-contaminated water from deep excavations.
Our in house designed, modular treatment plant was efficiently dealt with two both suspended solids and hydrocarbon contamination, ensuring all the effluent met the site’s discharge licence conditions.
We installed and tested the system at an early stage of the works allowing us to collect and analyse samples in our UKAS accredited laboratory and use this information to assist in obtaining a temporary discharge license from the local sewerage undertaker. This meant the
contractor was able to discharge effluent direct to the foul sewer.
With the high costs and project delays associated with tankering hydrocarbon-contaminated wastewater from site our fully mobile and modular dewatering systems are a simple and cost effective way of dealing with dewatering effluent.
Project value: less than £10k
What Do You Do on a Cold, Wet Saturday?
When one of our clients rang late in the week to ask if we could carry out some CBR testing on a motorway hard shoulder the next Saturday we should have checked the weather forecast before saying yes. Saturday saw high winds and torrential rain – but more importantly for our client, it also saw us complete the required CBR testing despite the weather conditions. Just for good measure we also carried out some Mackintosh probing at no additional cost.
Contract value <£1k
If you need CBR testing, Plate Bearing testing, dynamic probing or pile probing then please contact Duncan Eastland (Tel: 01296 739431).
Motorway Service Area Investigation
Earlier this month we were awarded a contract to investigate the forecourt area at a motorway service area in southern England, for a major oil company, as part of a leasehold transition.
With data from over thirty boreholes and monitoring wells this was a relatively detailed investigation for forecourt investigation. However, our client understood that carrying our a comprehensive combined environmental and geotechnical ground investigation at an early stage invariable pays saves money in the long run.
We used our GeoProbe direct-push drilling system to construct boreholes, targeting key areas such as the below-ground fuel tanks, fuel lines and forecourt interceptor. We then analysed the soil and groundwater samples for our hydrocarbon suite at our own UKAS
accredited laboratory.
Our investigation report has provided our client with a detailed baseline study confirming ground quality and highlighting any areas of contamination at the time they took over mangement of the site.
Contract value £25k
Subadra Go Bananas
We certainly get to work at a wide variety of different sites, but a call from a major banana distributor was a first even for us. The underground pipework carrying fuel to supply their trucks had failed and required urgent replacement. At short notice we were on site replacing the corroded steel pipework with modern plastic equivalents. We sampled the soil around the failed pipework and our in-house laboratory was able to confirm within 24 hours that no significant ground contamination had occurred. Within 36 hours the fuel supply system was back in commission and the banana trucks had started rolling again.