Portfolio (R) Example

Portfolio (R) Example Portfolio (R) â€" Coursework Example > CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGYSITE CONDITIONSSite Conditions and Constraints (Inner City Sites) and the Reuse of Building PlotsSite conditions are the physical conditions of the construction site, adjacent property, and all access roads in and around the site. There is a policy of observing and documenting thephysical conditions of the site during all phases of a project (Martin, 96). These are in both written and photographic records. This documentation is valuable for assisting in the restoration of the site to its original condition including physical features and topography at the close of the project, determining damages and settling claims, and in communicating the progress of the project to the public and the authorities. The construction technique and working faces for excavation are influenced by site accessibility/high overburden conditions, restricting the provision of access tunnel or shaft (Garg Dayal, 01). Filled and Contaminated SitesWhen dealing with a filled site, a pro spective contractor should consider the uncertainties on how the site filled and what happens when it is later developed. The fill may be needed to provide a level area for parking cars or storing materials, or to provide space for a garden or play area. In some instances, a site is filled to cover up a swampy depression or poor soil, such as peat. Some people mistakenly believe that hiding the problem solves it. The range in the quality of fill is even wider. People take what they get such as loam, silt, wood, ash, building rubble from demolition projects, sometimes even sand and gravel. The homeowners, farmers and others who do the filling are often unaware that engineering is required or they are unwilling to spend the money to construct an engineered fill. Most often, the result rarely conforms to good construction practice. Contaminated site is a site at which hazardous substances occur at concentrations above background levels and where assessment indicates it poses, or is l ikely to pose an immediate or long-term hazard to human health or the environment. For an area of land to meet this definition of a contaminated site it must be an identified delineated area of land (a site) such as a landfill or a transport depot. The contaminated also has an identified contaminant (a hazardous substance) at a known concentration present in soils on the site, or discharging from the site. It also has the identified contaminant in concentrations that are higher than what would “normally” be expected for a non-contaminated site and because of the contaminant’s location and concentration, pose a threat to people and/or the environment. Hazardous substances could pose a threat to people or the environment through various physical and chemical properties such as carcinogenicity, toxicity, corrosiveness, explosiveness, combustibility and asphyxiation. It can be seen that the contamination of land and its surrounding areas, can be vary in both its nature and degree of severity. However, in many instances, land contamination can be related to site usage. Establishing a site’s current and historic land use is a worthwhile starting point in any risk assessment as it can provide important clues to the nature of the contamination and the types of contaminants that could be present.