ABSTRACT
In construction, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. After occasionally several years of preparation, the core of the construction process will start: construction itself. During this phase the fit-for-purpose of design, with all risk remediating measures taken, will be tested in practice. In spite of all preparations that have been made, surprises during construction remain inevitable. We will encounter pleasant surprises, like ground pollution that demonstrates to be less severe during the clean-up process at a brownfield site, as well as unpleasant surprises, such as hitting a buried water pipeline at a greyfield site, which was clearly not indicated on the drawings. However rigorous our preparations have been, uncertainty will accompany us during the construction process. The same applies for the GeoQ ground risk management process. While more
and earlier attention to ground risk management importantly reduces the number and severity of foreseeable risk, a residual uncertainty remains. In my view, effective ground risk management is more about dealing with ground uncertainty, in full awareness, than totally eliminating ground uncertainty. The latter is an unrealistic dream scenario, in particular during construction. Figure 12.1 presents the construction phase in the entire GeoQ process. In the case of a conventional type of construction project, construction follows
after the contracting phase. Otherwise, construction succeeds the design phase. By building on the examples in the introduction of the previous chapters: now the bored tunnel actually has to be bored. GeoQ aims to provide structured ground risk management during the entire construction process, helping to realize the most favourable construction result, within the project specifications, the agreed
and
risk profiles and the ground conditions to be encountered. Ideally, also in this phase all of the six GeoQ steps are performed.
