Geotechnical issues underlie many contractual claims, and are often of key importance in the resolution of arbitration and litigation proceedings.
A number of our senior geotechnical specialists have acted as Expert Witnesses and given evidence at arbitration and litigation hearings, at Planning Inquiries and at Parliamentary Committees. CVs of staff with expertise appropriate to particular geotechnical issues can be supplied on request.
Issues that Halcrow’s geotechnical specialists have advised on include:
highways
- construction costs arising from geotechnical factors
- damage to properties adjacent to construction and ground investigation sites
- classification of excavated materials for payment purposes
slopes and landslides
- construction procedures and risks
- influence of coal mining on landslide stability
- coastal cliff stability
- stability of spoil heaps, quarry and opencast mine slopes
- embankment failures
- causes and corrective measures
- effect of highway construction on pre-existing landslide
contamination remediation
- prospective remediation costs
groundwater
- effects of rising groundwater on buildings, utilities’ installations and other facilities
- hydrogeological effects of developing a large opencast coal site
foundations
- power station foundation failure
- piling
- ground settlement and undermining
- adequacy of site investigation
tunnels
- ground conditions affecting a thrust bored bridge under a railway line
- support failures in rock tunnels
- classification of excavated materials for payment purposes
- Failure of landfill lining system during construction
- Damage to residential property by tree roots and ground desiccation
- Hard rock quantities in open cast mine