Andrew Reeves, Hawkins’ Marketing Director, was recently invited to present at the Chartered Association of Building Engineer’s (CABE) Southern Region technical conference. Andrew’s presentation, ‘Sinkholes: their causes, impact on buildings and how to prevent them’ was based on his experience in investigating sinkholes in various locations throughout UK, over the past decade.
Read Andrews previous case studies on ground investigation issues here.
As an introduction, Andrew described his background as a geotechnical engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, as well as Hawkins and its capabilities, especially regarding the Built Environment, with our team of 35 civil, structural and fire engineers, architects, acousticians and hydrologists.
Andrew then discussed what a sinkhole was, the different mechanisms of formation, causing varieties such as ‘drop-out’ and ‘collapse’ dolines, and the locations where we can expect to find them – generally in areas of soluble rocks ranging from chalk to salt found in diagonal bands across UK. He explained that wash-out dolines, involving large volumes of water often over a short period of time, are frequently associated with burst water mains, although it is sometimes difficult to identify whether the sinkhole was caused by the burst main or was created by it.
Using a number of case studies, Andrew then described how Hawkins investigates sinkhole cases, such as by looking at historical maps as part of a desk study and using drones as part of the on-site investigation. He then looked at the damage and disruption sinkholes can cause to households and the local community, what can be done to mitigate the potential issues caused by sinkholes, such as enhanced site investigations and monitoring of water mains, and how climate change will likely increase the frequency and impact of sinkholes.
Andrew wrapped up the presentation by taking the audience through the publicly-available information regarding the recent Godstone sinkhole and how it is likely to be related to the local underground mining activity.
Andrew would like to thank CABE for their invitation to speak at their conference.
