Soakaway Investigation for proposed residential development in Buckinghamshire

Low rise residential development is planned for the site and the Client’s drainage engineers required infiltration rates for the soils in order to design the drainage scheme for the site.

The site lies on the boundary between two different geological formations. Clay was considered to be present across the majority of the site with limestone in the very eastern part of the site. It was also possible that the limestone geology was present at depth below the clay.

EMS undertook five trial pits spread across the site to ascertain the distribution of potentially permeable strata across the site. Of these five, three were selected for soakaway infiltration testing based of the presence of limestone or weathered limestone.

The investigation found that permeable strata was present only in the south of the site and recommended that soakaways were located in this area. Impermeable clay was encountered elsewhere on the site.

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