Soil and Rock Consultants

Soil & Rock Consultants carry out hydrogeological assessments for a variety of purposes, including identification of water supplies (industrial and drinking water), dewatering assessments for construction excavations, and forensic assessments relating to foundation or slope failures, and water supply losses from storage reservoirs.  Hydrogeological investigations range from desktop reviews or monitoring, to onsite hydraulic testing, motor repair and computer modelling depending on client or regulatory requirements.

Our hydrogeology team offers a comprehensive range of services relating to water resource management, hydrogeology and hydrology services include planning, design, supervision, management and development programmes in the following fields;

Our qualified environmental professionals provide the following services;

• Groundwater modelling and groundwater surface interaction
• Water supply investigation and development (Potable & Industrial)
• Assessment of Environmental Effects (AEE) for resource consent  
• Dewatering assessments for construction impact assessment
• Design and implementation of groundwater sampling programmes
• Environmental monitoring and reporting
• Hydraulic testing and analysis (Pumping test)
• Production and monitoring of well installation and abandonment

Geotechnical Engineering has been the core service of our company for many years providing specialist consultancy services throughout New Zealand and the Pacific. Ever changing complexity of projects demands our involvement in the project from the start to final inspections including close cooperation with other consultants and contractors.

Soil & Rock has a team of highly experienced geotechnical engineers, engineering geologists, computer modellers and geotechnical design experts which offer their expertise through all stages of the project starting with field investigation, computer analysis, interpretation and design, construction inspections and certification.

Providing a diverse range of geotechnical services to our clients our involvement in many projects starts at initial concept, and includes investigation, design and construction observations.

Field investigations are performed by our specialist field staff and the site specific results are analysed by our qualified and experienced geotechnical engineers and engineering geologists. We obtain in-situ information on the physical properties of soil and rock and collect samples for laboratory testing to provide geotechnical design recommendations for earthworks and various types of structures.

All our sites have a site specific health and safety plan, field brief and scope and our team of professionals carry out a range of testing methods to gather data including:

• Hand auger drilling
• Scala penetrometer testing
• Cross sections and GPS surveying
• Logging of machine drilled rotary core boreholes
• Logging of machine drilled percussion boreholes
• Logging of machine excavated test pits
• Geomorphologic mapping
• Laboratory testing
• Clegg hammer testing
• Nuclear densometer testing
• Soil contamination sampling
• Groundwater monitoring
• Cone penetrometer test (CPT)
• Shear vane testing

Our geotechnical design team consists of highly experienced Geotechnical Engineers who play a vital role in the early planning and design stages of a project. Construction inspections, performance monitoring and a hands-on approach are equally important for the successful completion and engineering sign-off of the projects we work on. Our key focus is on the design of earth retaining structures, ground improvement techniques and slope engineering fields of practice, with the in-house capability and expertise to design anything from small through to large scale commercial and infrastructure projects.

Our qualified engineers and geologists provide the following services:

• Timber pole / barrier pile retaining wall design
• Mechanically stabilised earth (MSE) wall design
• Soil nailing design
• Rock slopes support and rock fall barriers design
• Ground improvement methods design
• Reinforced embankments design
• Peer review of design
• Wetland / pond design
• Groundwater control methods design

We own a complete suite of analytical tools that allow detailed design and preparation of construction drawings in a timely manner. We use the latest specialist software packages available in the market to perform routine, conventional geotechnical analysis but also numerical / finite element analysis should this be required for projects of increased complexity. Indicative software packages that we use include PLAXIS 2D (Static & Dynamic), SLIDE, WALLAP, MSEW, Phase2, Settle3D, CPeT-IT, CLiq, Rocfall and MODFLOW.

Our design team are fully versed in using the software having attended advanced courses in computational geotechnics and Soil Dynamics and Soil Engineering.

Disclaimer: We provided the geotechnical input for the above retaining wall but were not involved in the geotechnical design.

Our engineering geologists prepare and use geologic and geomorphologic mapping, aerial photograph interpretation, rock face assessments and various other investigative methods to develop a geological or geotechnical model of a site.  Our engineering geologists work closely with our geotechnical engineers to analyse and form recommendations relating to a specific hazard or development proposal.

Work commonly carried out by our engineering geologists includes:  mapping of rock defects and analysis of rock mass properties, rockfall analysis and design input for rockfall mitigation and assessment of natural hazards for land development.  Our dedicated engineering geologists are often found dangling from abseiling equipment, or near a drilling rig getting their hands dirty!

Our qualified engineers and geologists provide the following services;

• Assessment of geologic and geotechnical hazards including remediation solutions for natural and man induced hazards
• Engineering geologic and geomorphologic mapping
• Landslide and slope stability
• Erosion, flooding, dewatering, runoff assessments
• Rock face and defect mapping
• Cliff stability studies
• Hydrogeological studies
• Seismic investigations and liquefaction assessments

We have dedicated inspections and earthworks teams who are readily available to assist you or your clients during the construction phase of your work for;

• Earthworks Monitoring
• Nuclear Densometer testing and Scala Penetrometer testing
• Construction inspections
• Earthworks completion reports and
• Certification during construction

Our project engineers are actively involved with our inspections teams in the construction phase of the work to ensure our recommendations specified in our report flow through to the construction phase and your project runs smoothly.

On conclusion of the inspections phase we provide a comprehensive detailed account of what we inspected and final certification for your project to obtain your signoff with local authorities.  With strong management controls and well developed quality assurance procedures we ensure consistency and high quality in our monitoring & inspections.

We carry out analysis of slope stability for various purposes.  These include assessing the risk of slope movement for proposed or existing building platforms and carrying out forensic analysis on slopes that have already experienced either recent or historic instability.

Common forms of slope instability are often described as landslides, land slips, slumps and debris flows.

The results of slope stability analyses can be used to provide design recommendations to help ensure that an existing or proposed development is not subject to risk of damage due to slope movement.  Where slope instability has occurred or is expected to occur that affects an existing or proposed structure, we will use the results of our analysis to formulate geotechnical design recommendations to assist with mitigation of the risk, and repair of any damage.

Where necessary our services can extend to design of slope stabilising measures such as in-ground retaining, soil nailing and sub-surface drainage.  We also carry out observation of construction and provide geotechnical certification for works we have investigated, designed and observed during construction.

Our qualified geologists and engineers provide the following services;

• Qualitative and quantitative analysis of slope stability. Quantitative analysis involves the use of specialised computer software
• Computer based modelling of remedial measures to decrease or mitigate the risk of instability
• Providing detailed design recommendations for remedial works
• Geotechnical design of stabilising structures
• Certification of slope stabilising measures

Soil & Rock Consultants are involved in a wide range of industries, land use types and with a variety of soil and groundwater contaminants such as pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers, hydrocarbons, heavy metals, asbestos etc.

Our Environmental Division is involved in a wide range of projects throughout New Zealand from stormwater and wastewater investigation and management to hydrogeology and contamination investigations. We are also specialised in contaminated land investigation and contaminated site management. We are Suitably Qualified and Experienced Practitioners (SQEP) with expertise of over 30 years.

We carry out Contaminated Land Management (CLM) investigations, identification and long-term management of soils and groundwater that has been chemically impacted by human activities.  This may include accidental or intentional release of substances that are toxic to both the environment and human health.  Activities commonly associated with contaminated land studies in New Zealand include historic agricultural & horticultural land, industrial manufacturing & processing sites, service stations and landfills.

CLM investigations in New Zealand are governed by multiple guidance documents and regulations issued under the Resource Management Act (RMA, 1991). Standards for investigation and reporting follow Ministry for the Environment guidelines, and are enforced by individual Regional and District Councils minimum reporting requirements.  Following further regulations relating to the protection of human health (National Environmental Standard – NES) reporting of CLM investigations are required to be undertaken by Suitably Qualified and Experienced Practitioners (SQEPs), with sufficient demonstrable experience relating to the assessment of contaminated land.

Works completed by our experienced environmental team include;

• Desktop site assessments for identification of potential site contamination activities (PSI – Preliminary Site Investigation)
• Onsite sampling and quantitative assessments of contamination levels, with comparison to regulatory limits (DSI – Detailed Site Investigation)
• Preparation of remediation guidance documents and site management plans (RAP/SMP – Remediation Action Plan/Site Management Plan)
• Supervision and sign-off reporting remediation of contaminated sites (SVR – Site Validation Report)
• Landfill screening for cut-to-waste earthworks  excavations
• Design of long-term containment structures for contaminated materials

All of our soil contamination projects are undertaken by suitably qualified environmental engineers as required under the National Environmental Standard who are educated and have obtained experience related to the recognition and interpretation of soil contaminants, the understanding of how this impacts the environment and knowledge of methods and recommendations by which to mitigate the hazards and underlying soil conditions.

Our stormwater & hydrology team offers stormwater management services including stormwater disposal via on-site soakage, detention/retention specification and off-site discharge to public reticulated stormwater systems or watercourses. Soil & Rock Consultants can also provide stormwater neutrality assessments for rural countryside living areas.

Excessive stormwater become runoff flows via overland flow path and can cause flooding that can have potential risk and/or impact to the surrounding environment. Stormwater comes from rain collected in roofed or paved areas and runoff from rainfall exceeding the soil capacity to absorb water.

Our experienced team also offers services relating to overland flow path assessment, mitigation and diversion, as well as flood modelling and impact assessment.

Works completed by our experienced personnel include but are not limited to;

• On-site stormwater soakage investigation
• Assessment of soakage capacity
• Off-site Stormwater Management
• Flood level modelling & diversion
• Overland flow path mitigation & diversion
• Stormwater/Hydraulic neutrality reporting

On-site wastewater treatment & dispersal systems typically provide treatment of wastewater products that are produced and subsequently treated and disposed of within the same property.

Our wastewater treatment and dispersal design team provide site-specific solutions for your on-site wastewater project. Our designs range from domestic systems to Schools, Church, Marae & campground installations.

We have expertise where sites are difficult. We have an enviable track record with Resource Consent applications where proposals are outside ‘Permitted Activity’ criteria. Our designs comply with the Auckland Council Unitary Plan, TP58 and National Standards.

Our qualified team of engineers provide the following services;

• Preparation of an on-site wastewater treatment & dispersal design/assessment report
• Preparation of a dispersal network design to suit the site and practical installation
• Assessment of environmental effects
• Preparation of Resource Consent applications for complex situations