Capturing the moment

IETG provides data capture, analysis and information management services to the environmental and infrastructure sectors. Within its business, it has the means to establish not only the source and the route, but also the receptor of pollutants travelling through the air, across or beneath land or by water.

Through the creation and adoption of an ‘Environmental Matrix’, IETG has been able to develop its work within land contamination and remediation, by managing the complete project and integrating all the data capture services, so that the client does not have to employ separate contractors to cover the different areas.

A recent project undertaken at the City of Manchester Stadium was completed successfully using the ‘Environmental Matrix’. The stadium was the centrepiece of the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Originally built as a 38,000 seater stadium, it is now in the process of being converted into a 48,000 capacity venue.

IETG was contracted to establish the location of buried services and carry out a drainage connectivity survey and transfer all data captured to a topographical drawing supplied as a final report on disk to the client, Brock Civil Engineering.

The advantage of the ‘Environmental Matrix’ is that the client can use IETG for any number of the seven stages, and the stages adopted for Manchester Stadium included;

Stage one — desktop research. This facility generated valuable buried services information before any site investigation took place. Information was gathered from third party enquiries and records from utility companies and compiled together with the history of land use. Once stage one was completed, Stage two — the physical examination, could be undertaken. Visual examinations and the marking of utility locations were carried out using RD4000 cable location equipment, in conjunction with the latest Mala GPR system. The traditional way to locate buried services is by using electro magnetic systems. IETG use radio detection (RD) units, which not only receive natural frequencies but are designed to receive preset frequencies as well. The RD system is the most efficient method for locating metallic services, whereas GPR (ground probing radar) is widely recognised as the most efficient way of locating non metallic services. When the work on the stadium had been completed ready for the Commonwealth Games, no detailed plans were produced identifying the positions of the underground services, so IETG undertook Stage three — mapping to remedy this situation and produce a detailed plan showing all visible features, elevations, contours and boundaries, therefore offering the client a vision of the site both above and below the ground.

Stage five — data presentation was the final stage carried out by IETG. Information was collated, analysed and presented in disk format, so that the client could carry out the data interrogation necessary.

Through work carried out at Manchester Stadium and also on other projects at Arsenal and MG Rover, IETG’s ‘Environmental Matrix’ has proved to be an invaluable and comprehensive tool used by consultants and engineers to extract the appropriate information required for them to complete their task.