In Situ Site Investigation installed 73 vibrating wire piezometers (VWP) across two sites on an existing mine in Northern France. The Piezometers were installed to monitor ground water pressure within the tailings material (mine waste) whilst more material is deposited on top of the existing tailings.

Two CPT rigs with different specifications were required on site due to some ground areas in the location being very soft with limited access. Frank, CPT 026, was initially proposed to be utilised for the majority of the project, however, when the enabling works commenced, it was deemed unsafe to use Frank in the boggier areas. It was agreed with client to use a lighter rig, CPT 020, Paolo, a 1.5 Tonne track mounted rig, and change the positioning of some of the VWPs. We also worked closely with our client to include some of the older existing VWPs into the new system and provided them with a real time remote login system which they can now monitor remotely and set up emergency trigger notifications if the pore water pressure exceeds a safe level.

We worked alongside Dam Monitoring Solutions who provided the specialist monitoring expertise for the installations and all of the VWPs were installed using CPT rigs which resulted in quality, quick installations. The client was very satisfied with the outcome and how we worked together and adapted in order to accommodate the challenging site conditions.

We have further projects coming up in the new year using the same technology.