The ground: clients remain exposed to unnecessary risk

The ground remains the greatest source of risk to construction projects. In spite of a wealth of freely available information and guidance on the central importance of adequate site investigation in managing ground risk, many clients remain unnecessarily exposed to risk due to inadequate site investigation. The Federation of Piling Specialists undertook a comprehensive survey of geotechnical designers within its membership to evaluate the usefulness of site investigation information routinely provided to them. For nearly a third of all the piling and specialist geotechnical contracts surveyed, the site investigation information provided was poor, preventing optimisation of the foundation solution. The cost to clients arising out of poor site investigations far exceeds the savings that could be made by following good practice when investing in a site investigation. The survey indicates that good practice guidance is not being followed, resulting in investigations that are not adequately designed, specified or supervised.