What surveys and geotechnical covers
Every civil design rests on two sets of facts: the shape of the ground, and what the ground is made of. Topographical survey establishes the first, geotechnical investigation the second. Both are inexpensive relative to the cost of the design work they underpin, and both are routinely the source of the expensive surprises that appear during construction when they are skipped.
Typical deliverables
- Topographical surveys — ground levels, contours, existing services, boundaries and site features, supplied in a form the design can be built on directly.
- Site investigations — test pits and sampling to establish the soil profile across a site.
- Geotechnical reports — the soil profile with its implications for founding conditions, earthworks and pavement design.
- Material assessments — whether material on site is suitable for use in fill and layerworks, which often determines the earthworks cost.
- As-built surveys — confirming what was constructed, for handover and record purposes.
When you need it
Survey work comes first on nearly every project, before layouts are finalised. A geotechnical investigation is warranted wherever founding conditions are uncertain, where significant earthworks are planned, or where a site is known to have problem soils — and in South Africa, on any site where heaving or collapsing soils are a realistic possibility, it is not optional.
It is also worth commissioning both where a site is being bought: the results frequently change what the land is worth developing for.
How we work
We scope the investigation to the decisions it needs to support, rather than to a fixed template — a platform for heavy plant and a residential layout warrant very different levels of effort. Results are reported in terms of their design consequences, not just as raw data.
The output feeds detailed design, the earthworks assumptions in infrastructure planning, and the site levels that storm water design depends on.