Business Park, Surrey

Brief

The client had employed an engineer to provide engineering and project management services.  This included a site investigation to determine soil conditions in preparation for the design.  After the construction work had started, the site investigation was called into question as it emerged that the ground conditions were not as expected, requiring excessive excavation.  

The poor-quality soil was disposed of off-site and replaced with imported granular material, resulting in increased cost and delay for the project.

HKA was appointed by the client to provide expert opinion on the adequacy of the initial site investigation and the quality of the interpretation of ground conditions.

What we did

Working closely with the client, HKA provided geotechnical engineering expert witness services in litigation delivering expert opinion on the sufficiency of the site investigation activities conducted by the original engineer.

The assessment included the independent analysis of the site investigation data and re-evaluation of whether this was accurately interpreted.  It was found that the scope of the site investigation was adequate to accurately assess the ground conditions.  However, the interpretation of the data was found to be inadequate, with the misinterpretation of the geology of the site and the engineering properties of the site soils.

Outcomes

The matter was settled out of court in favour of the client with HKA’s input cited as playing a significant role in securing this result for the client.