Technical and Standards

The Technical and Standards sub-committee consists of Gordon Ross (Chair), Joel Stevens, Neil Coulter, Daniel Griffith, Kenny Paxton, Gordon Ross, Geoff Ellison, Ben Swallow, Angus Wheeler, Chris White, Callum Whitelaw and Nicholas Bool.

By Standards (with a capital “S”) we refer to International (ISO), European (EN) and British Standards (BS). It must be understood that Standards are designed for voluntary use and do not impose any regulations. However, laws and regulations may refer to certain Standards and make compliance with them compulsory. Certainly, non-compliance with Standards is a major issue when legal procedures take place, and observance and compliance with Standards is essential.

There are many Standards in existence – in the UK there are more than 27,000 BS Standards. Many are derived from (and equal to) EN Standards. If an EN Standard is published then it must become a BS Standard within generally 6 months.

BS (EN, ISO) Standards have to be purchased from British Standards shop (BSI) – The BDA is not able to provide them, due to copyright.

BS5930 2015+A1 2020 came in to effect on 1st of June 2020. It was prepared by Subcommittee B/526/3, Site investigation and ground testing, under the authority of Technical Committee B/526, Geotechnics.

The BDA is represented on this committee by current Technical and Standards Chair, Mark Toye. The new standard supersedes BS 5930:1999+A2:2010, which has been withdrawn.

The first edition of this British Standard (published as CP2001:1957) covered basic guidance on effective ground investigation. This was replaced by full editions in 1981 and 1999, which covered the subject matter in greater detail and each of which was brought up to date at the time of publication. The 1999 edition was amended twice to incorporate changes necessary to maintain compliance with BS EN 1997-1 and BS EN 1997-2 and their related standards. BS 5930:2015 was a full revision of the standard, and introduced the following principal changes.

The majority of changes arose from the further implementation into UK practice of BS EN 1997-1 and BS EN 1997-2 and the related test standards cited therein and the need to conform to these standards. Together with the revision of material that was out of date. And the inclusion where there was new information on geophysical surveying and ground testing and updated guidance on ground investigations associated with contaminated ground, changes to accommodate the requirements of data capture in the field and the inclusion of this in reporting as well as other amendments throughout the standard.

The BDA acknowledges the effort put into this by the review panel and would especially like to thank Dick Gosling, who once again represented the BDA.

BS 22475:3: Part 3: Conformity Assessment of Enterprises and Personnel by Third Parties – was adapted by UK in 2011 when first issued and this document continues to be included/referenced in the revised BS5930 This additional level of assurance has not been universally supported by clients and consultants (even though they refer to them in their standards and specifications). The drilling industry in the UK is well positioned with BS 22475 Part 3 due to previous initiatives taken by UK associations in developing;

• Registration of Engineering Professional (ROGEP) by the ICE
• NVQ in Land Drilling and third party audits i.e. the British Drilling Association (BDA) Audit

Both are now established in UK and the numbers of qualified and conforming personnel are increasing.

The principal Standards that govern our working are fundamentally the constituent parts of Eurocode 7.

• Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design — Part 1: General rules
• Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design — Part 2: Ground properties
• Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design — Part 3: Geotechnical structures

Some of the key Standard references are:-

• 22475 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Sampling Methods and Ground Water Management
• 22476 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Field Testing
• 22477 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Geotechnical Structure tests
• 22282 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Geo-hydraulic tests
• 17892 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Laboratory testing
• 14688 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Identification and classification of soil
• 14689 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Identification and classification of Rock
• 18674 – Ground Investigation and Testing – Geotechnical monitoring by field instruments