Contamination and remediation: The impact upon a construction project

Abstract

A recent project suffered a six and a half week delay, with associated costs of circa £300,000 in variations. This was due to the discovery of cyanide contained within ‘blue billy’ slag materials at the site. This paper seeks to review the definition of contamination, the risks a developer faces and also the process that must be followed once such a discovery is made. The key elements reviewed relate to site selection, defining contamination, remediation, risk management and legislation.