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Introduction
China State Hualong Const. Ltd as a tenderer for the above project and as part of the tendering requirement
has undertaken a site reconnaissance survey in connection with the above mentioned project at the Kwagyie
project site located at the Sekyere central district of Ashanti region. This site visit was conducted on the 22 nd
October, 2019 to ascertain the below stated objective.

Objective
China State understands that the Common user facility project site is currently owned by Ministry of Trade
and Industry (MOTI-GH). It is proposed that the site be redeveloped, involving the construction of
Administration block, Canteen unit. a factory/warehouse and External works.

The objectives of this report are to:

 provide information on the geotechnical and environmental quality of the ground

present on the site.

 assess the potential health and other environmental risks posed by the site to the
proposed development and other specifically identified receptors;

 assess the potential for offsite contamination to adversely affect the proposed
development.

Scope of works
This report describes a two stage process whereby the site is investigated and risks assessed. The
terms geotechnical and geoenvironmental are referred to throughout the report.

Geoenvironmental refers principally to the chemical nature of the ground and the degree of soil, water
and/or land gas contamination and the impact that contamination may have on current or future
development and also on the wider environment.

Geotechnical refers to all other aspects of the ground conditions and the impact they may have on the
physical construction of existing or future development, principally foundations, slope stability, drainage,
pavement and road design and groundwater control.

The investigation comprises two phases of work

The first part of this report presents the results of a site reconnaissance and the environmental impact on the
project site and its environs. It provides a review of previous desk study, site investigation, and other reports
where they have been made available by the Client or where China State has been able to locate that
information from third party sources.

A site reconnaissance was carried out by China State on 22nd October,2019 at the project site to ascertain
the above stated objectives. This desk study and site reconnaissance have been used to develop an initial
conceptual site model (CSM) which has in itself been used to develop a strategy for an intrusive
investigation by China State. The initial site CSM is used to identify geotechnical and geoenvironmental
hazards and the qualitative degree of risk associated with them. In terms of the geoenvironmental
assessment, the CSM is used to identify potential sources of contamination, potential receptors, and
pathways by which the two may be connected. These are known as possible pollutant linkages (PPLs) and
it is these that are key to the first stage of on-site risk assessment.

Intrusive Investigations Scope

The Phase II work comprises intrusive which involved on-site physical inspection and laboratory
analysis. The scope of work for this China State investigation was as follows:

 4 No. 1.5-2.9m deep machine excavated trial pits;

 3 No. trial pit scale soakage tests;

 Geotechnical Laboratory Testing including Atterberg Limit Tests, Saturation Moisture

Content Tests and Sulphate Determinations;
  Chemical Laboratory tests including 6 No. China State standard soil suite tests.

Selected samples of soil have been subjected to laboratory testing for a wide range of potential
contaminants including heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and screened for asbestos. The
laboratory testing has been conducted by our Geodetic consultants to enable us advice accordingly on the
soil types we are to encounter on this project site. The final stage of the geotechnical part of the
geoenvironmental assessment is the provision of preliminary soil parameters for use in geotechnical design
and broad recommendations for appropriate foundation options. It is intended that the geotechnical
assessment will fulfil the general requirements of the Ground Investigation Report as set out in section 6
of Eurocode7.
Phase 1-Desk study

Environmental Setting
The site is rectangularly shaped and effectively divided into two halves by surface cover types and use.
The southern half is hard-surfaced and used for parking characterized with mixed green low lying vegetation
with varying perennial features. The northern half of the site, which is fenced off from the outskirts of
the town, is unsurfaced, overgrown with scrub vegetation and unused. There are no buildings or other
structures on site, although some felled trees are located in the northern half.

Buildings and Ancillary Areas

There are no buildings on site. The southern half of the site is characterized by some existing structures. The
Desk Study found no evidence of the storage of hazardous materials or waste (other than cut down scrub
vegetation in the northern half) and this was confirmed by China State in its subsequent site walkover.

Topography and Ground Cover

The site is approximately level, with levels varying between 19.40 m and 19.49 m, although the southern part
of the site slopes slightly down towards to the west and there are localized falls within the car park towards
the gully drains. The southern half of the site has, in the main, an asphalt surface, with gravel areas in the
eastern and western parts. The northern half of the site is unsurfaced and heavily vegetated.

Hydrology
There is a surface water body that flows from 200m to the south, bordering Asante-Asamang on the north-
western outskirts of the district. The water quality of the water body is of general quality assessment C or
'fairly good' quality. Although the water body are both abstracted, there are no licensed abstractions in
the vicinity of the site (the closest being >380m away to the south west, for spray irrigation). No pollution
incidents affecting surface water have been recorded in the vicinity of the site (the closest being around
500m to the west).
Environmental Risk Assessment
A risk based approach is used to assess contaminated or potentially contaminated land within the
environment. For a potential risk to exist then there must be in place a pollutant linkage i.e. there must be a
source of contamination, a potential receptor and a pathway linking the two. In order to quantify the
magnitude of the risk then it is necessary first to calculate the potential exposure of the receptor as a
result of all the individual active pollutant linkages affecting that receptor. Secondly, it is necessary to
ascertain “what is an acceptable exposure level for each of the identified receptors and contaminants?”.

Potential Receptors
Potential receptors are those which may be impacted by any of the contaminants of concern identified above
and, in the case of this site, include the following: -

 Construction workers and future site residents;

 Adjacent residents in residential properties;

 Groundwater – Principal Aquifer (Zig Zag Chalk)

 Material construction of buildings and infrastructure.

Surface water courses are not considered to be relevant receptors in this case as the nearest are over
200m away, beyond roads, residential, commercial and industrial premises. In addition, the site is categorized
as Flood Risk 1 (little or no flood risk).
Phase II - Intrusive Investigation

Investigation Strategy and Findings

A total of 4 trial pits were excavated across the site in order to give general coverage and to verify ground
conditions reported by previous investigations. Given the contamination identified previously, it was decided
to focus on the groundwater level and the soil at the project site, although some additional allowance for
Petroleum Hydrocarbon testing was also allowed in the event that suspect soils were encountered. All
samples were also screened for asbestos fibre content.

Field work
The intrusive investigations were undertaken in a single phase on 22nd October 2019. At the time of the
investigations, the weather was mild and overcast with only occasional light rain.

Ground Conditions
The soil profile is consistent with that reported previously although the upper head deposits are classified
on visual inspection as silts, rather than laterite deposits as described previously. The trial pits were
restricted to areas of soft landscaping to limit surface disruption and as boreholes had already been
placed within the small area of hard landscaping. In summary the soil conditions encountered within the
areas of soft landscaping were mostly laterite gravel.

Groundwater
 Groundwater was not encountered in the trial pits, during the short term that they were
left open. Similarly, the previous site investigations did not encounter groundwater
during drilling (to a depth of 3m).
Geotechnical Appraisal

Strata Encountered

With the exception of the hard surfacing layers in the front central section of the site, the near surface soils
comprise lateritic-gravel like layers and topsoil which shows signs of cultivation i.e. trace coal, brick and
chalk. Cultivated topsoil and allotment soils are often contaminated with ash containing metals and poly
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Made ground of any sort is a potential source of contamination. The made
ground is shallow and in any case not a suitable founding stratum for traditional mass concrete foundations.

Recommendations
The measured seepage resistivity rates are poor and consistent with those anticipated from the observed
ground conditions and prevalent ground water conditions. Initial calculations indicate that it is not
possible to design traditional concrete ring or rubble filled soakaways in accordance with the Ghana
Buildings code as the half empty time exceeds the prescribed 24 hours. It may be possible to design trench
soakaways to drain roofs. Again initial calculations indicate that a minimum of 0.6m wide x1.5m deep
trench should drain somewhere in the region of 20m2 per metre length of trench. Permeable paving may be
possible for the access drive off the highway and areas of private drives, although an allowance should be
made for temporary storage of rainwater.

Bearing Capacity and Foundations

The natural soils should provide a suitable formation for traditional mass concrete trench foundations. The
clayey fine sandy silts and underlying chalk should be treated as NHBC LOW shrink ability and as such an
allowance should be made for deepening foundations where affected by shear stresses as discussed.

An allowable beating pressure of 85kPa is recommended on the lateritic soil mass for concrete foundations of
up to 2m width. A higher bearing pressure, of 125kPa, may be adopted on the structure less chalk. Care is
required to ensure that excessive settlement does not occur where foundations span these differing soil
types. Wherever possible, foundations should be taken down to a uniform chalk stratum. Where this is not
possible then they should be mesh reinforced to accommodate the potential differential settlements.

Below are the site pictures captured on the project site at the time of visit.