The team at Ground Developments Ltd (GDL) has begun work on three new contracts to deliver soil modification and earthworks packages that will facilitate new-build housing for three major housebuilders to construct their new homes across Scotland.

GDL said it has pioneered the use of soil modification techniques for use under new-build housing in Scotland over the last nine years.

With projects now underway in Bearsden, Chryston and Bothwell to deliver around 200 new homes, GDL’s expertise continues to be highly sought-after by key players in the housebuilding industry. Combined, the projects will stabilise and modify over 100,000m³ of site-won materials and they will make use of some of GDL’s key techniques including deep soil mixing, soil modification, and the creation of retaining walls.

Soil modification is used as a fill-drying technique to reduce the moisture content of site-won soil, and this allows the materials to be re-compacted in accordance with specified requirements. By maximising the re-use of site-won materials, GDL can eliminate the requirement for the off-site disposal of surplus excavated materials and imported aggregates.

This engineered solution often produces significant cost savings to developers; it also provides significant environmental benefits, which improves the overall sustainability of the development.

For example, the project in Bothwell will see truck movements reduced by 9,000 when compared to a traditional ‘dig and dump’ approach, which provides environmental as well as cost benefits to this project.

Kevin Mackenzie, managing director for Ground Developments Ltd, said: “Soil modification with significant cut/fill operations continue to be an area of expertise for our team, and we work with the majority of the country’s leading housebuilders.

“As part of our approach, we aim to engage with our clients and their designers as early as possible in their development process in order to create engineered solutions that offer real cost savings for their projects.

“Our early involvement means that we can use our expertise and wealth of knowledge to help our clients to value engineer their scheme. Going through this process ensures that pre-construction development works can get off to an efficient site start, and our clients can see real benefits such as reduced truck movements and the efficient use of site-won materials on their projects, which is naturally good for the environment.

“We are also very aware of the operating environments for these types of projects that can often see us working alongside existing housing. We aim to proactively manage our operating period to ensure minimum disruption to the local community, and where required we will control dust, manage surface water and arrange for regular road cleaning to ensure that we are a good neighbour whilst we are working on-site.”