scope

This geoguide deals with the investigation of sites in hong kong for the purposes of assessing their
suitability for civil engineering and building works, and of acquiring knowledge of site characteristic that
affet the design and construction of such works and the scurity of adjacent properties. it is essentially BS
5930 : 1981, code of practice for site investigation (BSI,1981a), modified as considere desirable for use in
hong kong.
while the basic structure and philosophy of BSI (1981a) has been maintained in this geoguide. topic of
particular importance in hong kong have been supplemented or rewritten in the light of local conditions
and experience. other sections of BSI (1981a) have been repeated herein without significant
amendment, and this has been denoten by italic script. Less relevant or rarely used ortions of BSI
(1981a) have been in corporated only by reference, or have been specifically deleted.
in this geoguide, as in BSI (1981a), the expression "site investigation" has been used in it's wider sense. it
is often used elsewhere in a narrow sense to describe what has been termed here in "geoguide
investigation". the use of soil and rock as construction materials is treated only briefly: further
information on this is given in BSI (1981b).
from part 2 onwards, this geoguide is devide as follows:
part 2. Oart 2 deals with those matter of technical, legal or evironmental character that should be
taken into account in selecting the site (or in determining whether a porposed site is suitable) and in
preparing the design of the works.
part3. part 3 discusses general aspects and planning of ground investigation, inculding the influence
of general condition and ground conditions of methods of investigation.
part 4 and 5. part 4 deals with the preparation of field reports and borehole logs, the interpretation
of the data obtained from the investigation and the preparation of the final site investigation report.
the last selection of BSI(1981a) wich deals with the description of soils and rocks is not covered in this
geoguide. A companion document, geoguide 3 : guide to rock and soil descriptions (GCO,1988) has
been devoted entirely to this topic, and the reader should refer to it for guidance on the dscription and
classification o hong kong rocks and soils.
it my be noted that there are some imbalances in turnament of the various topics, wich, in some sases,
more comprehensive coverage givn to methods that are less frequently used. because it would not be
possible to include full coverage of all available site investigation techniques, methods that are well
docuented elsewhere in the literature receive abbrevited coverage in this geoguide.
this geoguide represents a standard of good practice and therefore takes the form of recommendations.
compliance with it does not conver immunity from relevant statutory and legal requirements. the
recommendations given respect, it should be realized that improvements to many of the methods will
continue to evolve.


2.Terminology
a view commonly used descriptive terms for geologicals and types of ground investigation are often
interpreted in different ways and therefore require definition. in this geoguide, the terminology given in
the following paragraphs has been adopted.
"rock" refers to al solid material of natural geological origin that cannot be broken down by hand. "soil"
refers to any naturally formed earth material or fill that can be broken down by hand and inculdes rock
wich has weathered insitu to the condition of an engineering soil. Further guidance on the use of these
terms is givn in geoguide 3 (GCO,1988)
excluding any boulders or cobbles a "fine grained soil" or a "fine soil" is one that contains about 35% or
more of fine material (silt and clay size particles). a "coarse grained soil"or a "coarse soil "contains less
than 35% or more of fine material (silt and clay size particles). a "coarse graine soil" or a "coarse soil"
contain less than 35% of fine material and more than 65% of coarse material (gravel and sand size
particles). further guidance is given in geoguide 3.
a "cohesive soil" is one wich, usually by virtue of its fines content, will from a coherent mass. conversely
a "granular soil" or a "cohesionless soil" will not from a coherent mass. these simple terms are useful in
the clasification of materials during ground investigation for the purpose of choosing suitable method
for sampling the ground. a fine soil is generally cohesive.
the "matrix" of a composite soil refers to the fine grained material enclosing. or filling the space
between the larger grains or particles in the soil.
"boring" is a method of advancing a cased or uncased hole (viz a "borehole") in the ground and includes
auger boring, percussion boring and rotary drilling, in wich a drill bit is rotated into the ground for the
purpose of forming the hole. altough the term "drillhole" is commonly used in hongkong because of the
popular use of the rotary core drilling method in ground investigation, the general term "borehole" is
used throghoutthis geoguide for simplicity, whether the hole is bored augered or drilled.



part II GENERAL CONSIDERATION
3. PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF SITE INVESTIGATION
Investigation of the site is an essential preliminary to the construction of all civil engineering and
building works and the objective in making such investigations are as follows:
a. suitability.
to assess the general suitability of the site and environs for the proposed works.
b. design
to enable an adequate and economic design to be prepared, including the design or temporary
works.
c. construction
to plane best method of construction to foresee and provide against difficulties and delays that
may arise during construction due to ground and other local conditions ; in appropriate cases, to
explore sources indigenous materials for use in construction (see section 8.4) and to select sites
for the disposal of waste or surplus materials.
d. effect of changes.
to determine the changes that may arise in the ground and environmental conditions, either
naturally or as a result of the works, and the effect of such changes on the works, and on the
environment in general.
f. choice of site.
where alternative exist, to advice on the relative suitability of different sites, or differentparts of
the same site.
in addition, site investigation maybe necessary in reporting upon the safety of exiting features and
works (see section 8.3) for the design of extention, vertical or horizontal, to exiting works, and for
investigating case where failure has occurred (see section 8.2).


4.GENERAL PROCEDURES
4.1 extent and sequence of investigation
4.1.1 general
the extent of the investigation depends primarily upon the magnitude and nature of the proposed works
and the nature of site.
a site investigation will normally proceed in stages, as follows : desk study site reconnaisance; detailed
examination for design, inculding ground investigation,topographyc and hidrographyc survey and special
studies; follow up investigations during construction (figure 1). this may be followed by appraisal of
performance. some of the stages may overlap, or be taken out of sequence; for example, the site
reconnaisance may well take place before completion of the desk study.
the costs of a site investigation are low in relation to the overall cost of a project and may be further
reduced by intelligent forward lanning. discussion at an early stage with a specialist contractor will help
to formulate an efficient an economic plan.the technical requirements of the investigation should be the
overriding factor of investigatory methods, farther than their cost.
as far as possible, assembly of the desk study information should be compelete at least in respect of
thouse aspects related to ground conditionns, before ground investigation begins. a preliminary ground
investigation may be describe to determine the extent and nature of the main ground investigation. the
extent of the ground investigation is discussed in chapter 10.
for regional studies or site investigationof projects covering large areas, e.g. road , tunel or transmission
line routes, thecniques such as engineering geologichal and geomorphological mapping, terrain
classification and hazard analysis may be useful to delinate critical areas so that detalied investigation
can be concentrated in areas where they are most required (brand et al, 1982; griffiths & marsh,
1984;hansen,1982).
4.1.2 adjacent property
because of the dense urban development in hong kong, construction activities can often affect adjacent
property. it is therefore essential that investigation should cover all factor that may affect adjacent
property, inculding features such as slopes and retaining walls (see chapter 7 and section 8.3). where
possible, records of ground levels, ground water levels and relevant particular of adjacent properties
should be made before, during and after construction. where damage to exiting structure is a possibility,
adquate photographic records should be obtained.

adjaetnt building, structure and buried service, inculding pipes conveying water, gas or sewage, should
be specifically considered, as hey may be affected by fibration, ground settlement or mvement, or
cahnges in groundwater levels during and after construction actifities on the site. Hpspitals and other
buildings containing sensitive instruments or apparatus should be given special consideration.
special permission or approval must be obtained when the site is above or near the mass transit railway
corporation's tunel or structur, or is within the mid-levels scheduled area (see appendicees A and B; see
also chapter 7) the approximate locations of these two futures are shown in figure 2.
4.2 desk study
as a first stage in site investigation, a desk study is necessary and appendix a indicates the types of
information that may be required. Much information about a site may already be available in exiting
records. A summary of the important sources of information is given in appendix B.
A new geological survey is currently under way in hong kong to replace the exiting 1:50000 scale
geological maps and memoir (allen & sephenes, 1971); new 1:20000 scale geological maps will beome
available between1986 and 1991 (figure 3). The new geological survey uses different nomenclature for
certain major rock divisions and rock types (addision, 1986; GCO,1988, strange & shaw, 1986); this
should be used wherever possible.
an important source of basic geothecnical information is the geotechnical area study programme (GASP)
publications available from the goverentment publication centre. Sistematic terrain evaluation has been
under taken at a scale of (1:20000 covering the entrie territory (brand et al,1982). These publications
generally contain engineering geology. terrain cllassification, ersion, landform and physical constraint
maps. seleted areas of the territory have also been published. the gasp programme and the areas
covere by the GASP publication are shown in figure 4, and examples of some of the 1:2000 maps are
given in figure 5.
the geotecnical information unite also contains numerous record of boreholes from throughout the
territory, as well as useful record of landslides, rainfall and peizometric data, and laboratory by
geographical location of the site. further details of the geotechnical information unite are given in
apendix b.a useful biblography on the geology and geotechnical engineeringof hong kong is also
available (brand,1992) local maps and plans are easily obtaine (table 1). and as built records of private
developments are retained by the buildings ordinance offive or the public record office (see appendix
B). Valuable information may often be obtained from areal photographs, as discused in chapter 6.

4.3 Site reconnaissance
at an early stage, a through visual examination should be made of the site. the extent to which ground
adjacent to the site should also be examined is, in general, a matter of judgement (see section 4.1.2). In
the intenselydevelopment urban areas of hong kong, it will usually be necessary to inspect exiting slopes
and retaining walls within and surrounding the site and adjacent properties during the site
reconnaissance stage. Appendix c gives a summary of the procedure of site reonaissance and the main
points to be considered but should not be regarded as necessarily covering all requirements.
nearby cut slopes can reveal soil and rock types and their stability characteristics, as can old excavations
and quarries. Similarly, in the vicinity there may be embankment or buldings and other structures having
a settlement history because of the presence of compresible or unstable soils. Other important evidence
that might be obtained from an inspection is the presence of underground excavation, such as
basements and tunels. The behaviour of structures similar to those intended should also provide useful
information, and the absence of such structures may be signivicant, as may be also the presence of a
vacant site in the midst of other wise intensive development.
example of earlier uses of the site that may affect new construction works are given in chapter 5.

4.4 Detailed examination and special studies
for most projects, the design and planning of construction will require a detailed examination of the site
and its suroundings (see also appendix D). such requirements may necessitate a detailed land survey (se
qppendix D.2), or an investigation of liability to flooding. The investigation of ground conditions is dealt
with in parts III and IV. Other requirements may entail studies of specialsubjects such as hydrograph (see
appendix D.3); micro metology (see appendix D.4); sources of materials (see appendix D.5); disposal of
waste materials (see appendix D.6); or other environmental considerations.
the possibility of discused tunnels affecting the site should also be considered (see section 5.2)
In areas where under ground cavities are suspected (culshaw & waltham, 1987) it may be necessary to
carry out a special study to assess the suitability of the site for development (see section 7.1)

4.5 Constructionand performance appraisal
construction and performance appraisal are discussed in chapter 16.