The recent fine weather has been perfect for capturing aerial footage of a drilling rig obtaining deep soil samples for geotechnical and geoenvironmental analysis as part of our River Thames Flood Defence investigations at Barking Riverside in Essex.

The Barking Riverside development will create a brand new neighbourhood alongside 2km of River Thames frontage. With an area of 180 hectares, it is one of the most ambitious and important new brownfield developments in the UK. Outline planning permission was granted in 2007 for 10,800 homes with healthcare facilities, schools, open space, public squares, a new railway station and 65,000 sq m of commercial floor space.

CGL has been involved with the project since 2012 and we have developed a remediation and ground improvement scheme for the site which previously housed three power stations, fuel ash lagoons and a landfill. So far our work has enabled over 1,000,000m³ of soil to be reused on the site, minimising lorry movements to take contaminated soil away for specialist treatment or disposal.

In addition CGL has provided significant geotechnical input to the project relating to analyses of short and long term ground movements resulting from the major earthworks activities as well as road, bridge, and culvert design.