Earth Science Partnership

• The report identified, subject to nominal chemical and physical site remediation, that the site would be suitable for residential development.
• Liaison and presentation of information to the Local Authority and Environment Agency allowed their opinions and concerns to be acknowledged and addressed at an early stage.
• Remedial works could be scoped to allow the client to budget for site-preparatory costs, reducing financial development risks.

ESP were employed to assess physical and chemical risks at Cardiff City Football Club to enable the client to evaluate development costs and planning risks, for a proposed residential development.

Situated on the reclaimed moors, at the south of Cardiff, the site was affected by filling and leveling with Victorian-Ash-Landfill. The spectator stands at the north and east had also been constructed on piles of Victorian-Ash-Landfill materials, therefore an assessment of its chemical properties were required to assess re-use/disposal options.

Following a comprehensive desk-study, a range of carefully designed physical investigation works were implemented. The works had to be designed to accommodate Cardiff City’s playing and training schedules and careful liaison was undertaken with the club’s grounds-men to ensure the integrity of playing and spectator facilities were not compromised.

Windowless sampling and percussive borehole methods were employed to obtain soil samples across the site, to assess ground conditions at depth, and to allow installation of monitoring wells for gas and groundwater sampling and monitoring.

The physical works allowed derivation of the conceptual site model, which identified highly variable depths of Made Ground, overlying cohesive thick alluvium with gravels and mudstone bedrock at depth.

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.