You will all be aware of the former WRAS guidance for determining the potential for damage to water pipe materials in contaminated land and, from that, the appropriate material to construct the water pipes from. Well, the WRAS Guidance was withdrawn last year and replaced by new guidance from United Kingdom Water Industry Research Ltd (UKWIR) entitled “Guidance for the Selection of Water Supply Pipes to be used in Brownfield Sites” (Rep. No. 10/WM/03/21).

This document sets out procedures to undertake a risk assessment specific to the various water pipe materials and these procedures include a desk study to determine the history of the site and a suite of tests to be undertaken on the route of the water pipe if the desk study identifies a possibility that harmful chemicals could be present in the ground. The guidance allows for the selection of suitable materials without reverting to testing if no potential contamination is identified. Alternatively, the use of barrier pipe can be selected without testing if the possibility of contamination exists. Where testing is carried out the guidance includes a list of specialist organics analysis that is described as “mandatory”.

So far so good.

Scottish Water have adopted the new guidance from the early part of this year and appear to be insisting on testing regardless of the outcome of the desk study. We have, so far, carried out tests on one greenfield site as well as another location within a country estate. In one former industrial site we were instructed to carry out tests despite the fact that barrier pipes had been specified for the construction of the water supply pipe. In addition, we are having to revisit sites that were originally assessed under the WRAS guidance but have not been developed prior to Scottish Water’s uptake of the new UKWIR guidance.

This approach is adding to the site investigation costs and also causing delays in construction.

I believe Scottish Water are working on written guidance on the use of the new UKWIR publication and this may change their approach. In the meantime please be aware of these  requirements if you are planning to connect to a water main in the future.

We have a vacancy for an earth scientist/hydrologist or engineer with experience of flood risk and drainage assessment. The position is temporary for three months with a view to becoming permanent. Check out our Vacancies page for the details.

Having left the office at 12:30pm on Friday 17th Feb, we arrived at Whitehaven around 4:15pm in damp and driech weather. Despite this we were pretty confident and looking forward to the task ahead. We had a short run of 18 miles that evening to reach the B&B in Cockermouth before the start of the ride proper on Saturday morning and expected to be at the B&B before dark; the first sign of unfounded optimism.
The climb out of Whitehaven was the first shock – not that it was stupendously steep or long but that it started so suddenly right at the beginning of the route. After this we made good time on well surfaced bike tracks but the heavy cloud brought an early dusk and we were struggling to see the (very small) route signs. All of this slowed us down and we ended up taking a wrong turn in a small village, costing us a two mile detour. Needless to say by the time we reached our B&B it was pitch black and we were quite tired. This was soon rectified after a quick shower and a visit to the local hostelry for some food and a beer or two.
Saturday morning dawned wet and windy although this more or less cleared up during our breakfast, so we set off in reasonable conditions following the Sustrans track that we had arrived on. One of the problems with the route is that it comprises a number of Sustrans tracks linked together and these form three alternative coast to coast routes. Needless to say we should have taken another track and, after a very pleasant ride through the country side we found ourselves on a bridleway and then a steep rocky forest track overlooking Bassingthwaite Water. The track had already told us we were on the wrong route and the sight of Bassingthwaite confirmed it. Still, at least we had a decent view.
By the time we got off the hillside and regained the correct route we estimated that the diversion had cost us around nine miles to add to the additional two ridden the day before. Importantly, we had learned our lesson and were much more careful about checking the maps as well as the route numbers after that. Unfortunately, this slowed us down considerably, as did the upcoming hills, and didn’t entirely eliminate the navigational errors.
After regaining the route the next few miles we missed the route again due to poor signposting. Although this didn’t add too much distance it did mean a diversion off-road on our decidedly on-road bikes. There then followed a few miles of rolling countryside with a couple of steep hills thrown in and, just to add to our woes, we got caught in a sleety downpour that stung our faces and made us pretty cold. By the time we rolled in to Dalston, just outside Carlisle, for lunch at 1:15pm we were cold, tired and hungry and we hadn’t made half the day’s distance yet.
I threw my bike at a local mechanic to fix a brake problem and we went for lunch. Afterwards, feeling warm, fed and refreshed we grabbed my bike and made good headway despite one other short detour. For the next few miles we managed a good pace of 18-20+ mph on flat ground pushed by a brisk tailwind; we were getting optimistic again. We hadn’t, however, reckoned on the lateness of the day due to the slow morning, the upcoming hills towards our next stop at Newcastleton and the biting cold that we were beginning to feel due to the clear February sky.
Our stop at Newcastleton was reckoned to be at 90 miles from the start at Whitehaven and my computer read 91.5 miles as we watched the sun dip below the horizon in glorious technicolor. As we cycled through the fading dusk having more and more difficulty finding the route markers we came across a sign that read Newcastleton 81/2 miles. We eventually arrived in the town in darkness (again) in temperatures that were already below freezing and with very cold feet and hands. Still, a warm shower and meal and a beer would help, we thought. Wrong, we were so tired that we didn’t finish our meal or beer and we crashed before 10pm.
Over breakfast on Sunday morning we decided we would have to trim some of the distance that we had added to the route if we wanted to reach the finish in time to catch the train back home. We made a couple of alterations to the route and set off in glorious sunshine heading towards Kielder Water. We made much better time than anticipated and stopped for a celebratory tea and bun in a small village just below the dam. We then set off thinking that we had seen the end of the big uphills and that we would be coasting downhill to Sunderland.
Those Sustrans route planners are sly so-and-so’s though and on leaving the café we were immediately directed UP the side of the valley and we shortly came across the steepest hill of the route so far and the first one to have us walking! The downhills were causing me almost as many difficulties, as my brakes were far from efficient and my neck and shoulders were beginning to struggle from carrying a backpack.
After a few miles of ups and downs we eventually arrived on the valley floor and we began to think, again, that the hills were behind us. It wasn’t so much the route planners that caught us out next but the Roman road builders who directed their roads straight over any obstacle without deviation. This meant that we could see our next challenge as we approached it from a couple of kilometres away and, boy, did it look intimidating! We surprised ourselves by making it up that hill by pedal power and, as we ate our bananas at the top, we pondered the maps only to see a sneaky wee gradient arrow on the map about a mile or so along the road. Needless to say that gradient arrow forced us off the bikes for the 2nd and final time of the ride.
We had a bit of a rolling run along the top of the plateau before dropping down the east side and onto flatter roads. Wahay, we thought, and then Willie’s bike had a puncture! Shortly after that my bike computer decided it had had enough and zeroed itself at around 20 miles or so from the finish.
The run in towards Newcastle was reasonably quick and uneventful but, as we dropped into the Tyne valley I was starting to have spells of double vision and we were both beginning to feel quite cold. The run along the cycletrack next to the Tyne should have been our moment of triumph; it was a beautiful evening, the views are good and it’s a great surface, but my double vision was getting worse and I had to keep stopping to clear it.
We stopped in the centre of Newcastle. Willie’s feet and hands were like blocks of ice and I had little strength left in my neck and shoulders as well as the double vision. We had done it – we hadn’t reached Sunderland but we had put in the miles due to our detours.
The ride had proved to be just about beyond us at our current levels of fitness. The short days, cold weather and bad route marking just about did for us, but we did complete and I reckon it would be a very enjoyable route to do over three days or so in warmer weather and when there are longer days. I’m just not volunteering right now……

A new field for us, if accessed from a well trodden path.

Terrenus is now part of the push for sustainable energy having been commissioned to analyse the watercourses associated with two proposed hydro power stations. Working alongside CASA Planning and Environment this will utilise our background in fluvial flood modelling for both high and low river flows and broadens the scope of our capabilities in a very useful direction.

We’ll keep you posted on developments.

Some of you may remember Alastair Spearing, who worked for us for a while before leaving to join the army in 2008. He enlisted and was trained at Sandhurst, before joining 28 Engineer Regiment, where he was attached to the Counter IED Task Force in Afghanistan.

On October 6th Last year, while on a patrol in the Helmand Province, Alastair was hit by a roadside bomb, losing both legs and almost his life but for the quick action of a young soldier who administered first aid on site. Alastair was recovered to the UK and Selly Oak hospital in Birmingham, where he has gone through numerous surgical procedures and intensive physiotherapy. Amazingly, he was released home for Christmas and New Year but has returned to the Headley Centre for a period of rehabilitation and recovery.

Alastair’s spirit has amazed  us at Terrenus. When we initially heard about his injuries it took a few days to track him down and, when I first contacted him in November, he said that “the first two weeks were hard”. This attitude has inspired us to dedicate our annual fund-raising efforts to Help for Heroes, without whom the support for injured soldiers returning from duty would be much diminished.

We have planned a number of events to raise funds and set an ambitious target of £5,000. Our initial fund-raising event takes place on 22nd January, when Willie and I will attempt to complete 200 miles each in one day on static bikes in the Dollan Aqua Centre in East Kilbride. This will be followed by a number of other events, which will be timetabled shortly, culminating in a major event taking in the four countries of the United Kingdom in the late summer or early autumn of 2012. We know what we want to do but the details haven’t been finalised; we hope to notify you of our intentions shortly.

In the meantime you can make a donation to Help for Heroes through our By My Charity page. You can also follow our progress on Twitter and Facebook if you are so inclined.

Many thanks, in anticipation, for your support.

Well, not really. I enjoy writing the blog posts and I hope that you all get something out of them. The problem is trying to find subject matter and present it in such a way that it is useful to you and, hopefully, easy to follow. My blues relate to the subject matter, as I often notice people’s eyes glaze over when I tell them what I do. This particular blog post is an unashamed attempt to put the load back onto you, the reader, so that I don’t always feel like Seasick Steve when I try to think up a subject to write about. Besides, I dont have a porch or a rocking chair and I can’t play the guitar.

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. What would you like to see in our blog posts? You may have a specific question relating to a site you or your client is looking at or you may have a more general query about issues you come across but you’ve never asked anyone to clarify matters for you. If this blog post strikes a light feel free to drop me a line and I’ll do what I can to answer it, either in a blog or by private correspondence if you’d prefer. Depending on the subject matter your answer might come from me, Steven or William but you can be assured if it’s a question we can answer we will.

So, from contaminated land to soil gas, ground engineering to shallow mining, flood risk to SuDS, and all the way to waste issues and invasive plants, please feel free to give us a try. Heck, we may even be able to answer questions on cycling, running, photography, bringing up the kids or Playstations, but we do draw a line at relationships. That’s Seasick Steve’s area of expertise.

We have just completed the investigation of a site in east central Scotland that forms the garden of an old Manse, built at the beginning of the 19th Century.  A smallholding of 7 acres was given to the Minister with the Manse and garden and, apparently, on working the smallholding the minister came across some coal and decided to work it. He was taken to court by a local mining company but won the case and subsequently sold the rights to mine the coal to the mining company. Apparently he took twice as much in royalty from the mining and sale of the coal as he earned from his stipend!

Anyway, the story gave cause for concern because it suggested that, if he came across the coal when working the land, it must be very shallow, so a trip to examine the mine plans was required. Unusually we came across plans dating back as far as 1752, which show a number of mine shafts in the area, indicating that coal has been extensively worked for quite some time. Later plans also told us what coals had been worked from the closest shafts to the site and at what depth. From this and the geological records we could estimate that the depth of the shallowest worked seam was in excess of 60 metres and we were able to advise that the mineral stability of the site was satisfactory without resorting to rotary drilling.

The other thing that this helped us to establish was that the minister didn’t just come across the coal, he must have gone looking for it knowing the history of mining in the area. A canny man or a charlatan? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Thought it would be worthwhile giving a brief review of the projects we are working on at the moment just to give an idea of the scope of services that we offer.

William is working on a hydrological assessment as a contribution to an Environmental Impact Assessment for a hydro-electricity generation scheme in Angus, as well as a few flood risk assessments across the country. This work includes a flood risk modelling exercise for Dumfries and Galloway Council, which is intended to assist the Council in devising a flood mitigation scheme for those parts of Castle Douglas that are prone to flooding.

Steven is managing site investigations for a number of commercial and housing sites, including a project in Glasgow Airport. The interesting thing about this last project is that the soft alluvial soils at surface overlie a buried glacial landscape of rolling hills (Drumlins) formed of Glacial Till. Mapping the buried surface of Glacial Till is essential for foundation design. He also recently completed a remediation validation Scheme for East Dunbartonshire Council.

Fraser is working on a number of investigations for both geotechnical and contaminated land assessment for private house-builders and housing associations, the largest of which is on a former dairy site in south-west Scotland. He is also beginning the investigation of a site with a potential shallow mining problem in West Lothian. It is understood that mining commenced in the early 19th Century so mining records may be sparse but we are hopeful of turning something up.

Fraser Contributed to the Block Architects podcast yesterday. Discussions centred around marketing in the construction industry, social media, contaminated land, invasive plants and other issues. Entertaining and informative. You can listen to the podcast by following this link.

Post match analysis was mixed following the weekend with the Pedal for Scotland ride-out suffering major injury worries and the chief striker Fraser Duff being unable to take part. Those that did ride now carry the scars of the wind, the rain, the cold and the road surface conditions. The turn at Douglas did however bring the relief of a tail wind a strong finish over the Lang Wang down to Murryfield which brought victory and the added achievement of a bonus pint (I mean point).

Further match analysis is available.

William was using the cycle to raise money for World Horse Welfare who are engaged in animal welfare both here and in Africa where the lives of draft animals are improved as is the local community through sustainable development. For those who would like to donate please let me know.