Restricted-access site investigation: light rigs for tight sites

Tight access is a plant-and-method problem, not a reason to abandon the investigation. Pick a rig that fits through the gap, sits lightly on the ground and still recovers the samples and tests the scheme needs, and most "impossible" sites turn out to be perfectly workable. The one thing we ask is to be told about the access early, while there are still options.

Sites that call for a light approach

• Rear gardens and courtyards reached only through a house or a narrow side gate.
• Slopes, embankments and cuttings.
• Carriageways, verges and working railways or utility sites with little room to set up.
• Made ground, peat and other soft or waterlogged going that will not carry a heavy machine.
• Cellars, plant rooms and anywhere the headroom runs out.

What we send in

For the tightest work our Competitor Dart and Premier 110 window samplers lead the way - compact, tracked and gentle on the ground, taking windowless samples to around 10m and dynamic probes to around 20m, and leaving a monitoring well behind where one is needed. A restricted plot still gets a full set of samples and in-situ tests rather than a watered-down one.

Where the design needs to push deeper into soils, our Dando cable percussion rigs keep a small, low-impact footprint too. We move whichever rig suits the site on our own Fleet Operator Licensed transport across the UK, and where it helps we send a separate crew ahead to prepare the position before the drillers arrive.

Leaving the ground as we found it

Because these methods disturb so little, we can work in gardens, on finished surfaces and over soft ground and hand them back close to their original state. On live and operational sites we bring the segregation, permits and controls the setting calls for.

Send the details first

A few photos, a site plan and the practical limits - gateway widths, headroom, ground conditions, working hours - are usually all we need to tell you what will get in and what it can achieve. Get in touch before you mobilise and we will put the right rig on it.