Queens Exchange, Merthyr Tydfil
Introduction:
The report identified, subject to nominal chemical and physical site remediation, that the site would be suitable for residential and a school development. Remedial works could be scoped to allow the client to budget for site-preparatory costs, reducing financial development risks.
Details:
ESP were employed to assess physical and chemical risks at the site to enable the clients to evaluate development costs and planning risks, for a proposed residential development and new school. The site was heavily affected by mining, with coal and ironstones having been extracted by both opencast and underground entry for over 200-years. A number of shafts, adits and underground roadways were identified across the site.
Following a comprehensive desk-study, a range of physical investigation works were implemented comprising trial-pits, rotary drilling, laboratory testing in soil and leachate phases, and gas monitoring. The physical works allowed derivation of the conceptual site model, which identified highly variable depths of Made Ground, and depths to rockhead across the site, with significant mined voids identified within the rock, close to the surface.
A number of, metal and PAH compounds were identified within the near surface soils, and their distribution across the site was plotted, and interpreted to assess environmental and future health risks.
ESP designed, supervised and validated a stabilisation scheme for the school site, to reduce risk of instability associated with mine entries and underground roadways.