The site had previously been used for a temporary construction camp which was decommissioned, and buildings removed several years earlier.
In August 2009 JDSi were again engaged to prepare concept designs for an expansion to a 2,000 room village. High costs for earthworks including strengthening the embankment of an upstream water storage dam and upgrading services led to the expansion not being economically viable.
The site had previously been earthworked to form a series of benched tiers which descended the natural hillside slope of 6.5%. On engagement, JDSi coordinated a geotechnical investigation to assess the in-situ soils and ensure there were no potential slope stability issues.
The existing pads were graded towards the front which allowed stormwater to flow down the batter to a shallow drain at the rear of the next downhill pad. The final earthworks design changed the pads to grade to the rear, preventing potential batter scour and possible ground stability issues.
To meet disability and emergency access requirements, existing paths and roads were realigned to achieve acceptable grades.
The Client initially requested that existing in-ground services be reused as much as possible. An inspection of the infrastructure indicated that the condition of services could not be adequately verified, damage to services was likely during the deconstruction of the previous camp and some of the infrastructure, particularly electrical cabling, would not meet current standards. As such it was recommended and accepted that all services were to be new materials.
