The rise of urban regeneration schemes and the need to conserve green spaces in town and city centres means that much development is now taking place on old industrial brownfield sites, which present special challenges in terms of liability, risk and cost. Buro Happold’s geoenvironmental team has extensive experience in working with contaminated land and impacted groundwater and are experts at identifying and resolving technical issues that arise on site during development.
 
Comprehensive investigation of the soil and water environment enables us to identify potential hazards and then develop a range of appropriate remediation solutions. The choice of remedial measures is guided by quantitative risk assessment, backed up by a sound understanding of wider project issues including civil and geotechnical engineering aspects.

Our team’s input is particularly valuable at the masterplanning stage, when decisions can be made about site use and layout in order provide the most cost effective remediation solution. To assess risks properly, sufficient quality data is critical, so we carry out extensive sampling and analysis. Our aim is to produce innovative remediation strategies which integrate with the overall engineering objectives and the commercial needs of our clients.

The geoenvironmental team has extensive experience in producing desk top land contamination studies and of undertaking intrusive site investigation works on a wide variety of contaminated sites in the UK and overseas. We are also experienced in negotiating with regulatory bodies such as the Environment Agency and local planning authorities, and have developed links with leading remediation contractors to ensure the viability of remediation options in terms of cost-effectiveness, statutory requirements and environmental best practice.

Remediation can involve physical, chemical and biological methods, including soil treatments and encapsulation. Our engineers often supervise the remediation works on site. The Buro Happold geoenvironmental team is also experienced in the classification of construction spoil for disposal purposes, assessment of treatment options and the development of management strategies to minimise waste and costs.