Case studies: saving our clients money.

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Time on site saved: 2-3 weeks (per site)

Cost saving: £2 million

As part of a London council’s policy to develop unused land for residential purposes, all their potential sites were risk assessed for UXO.  This was a sensible action, but the council had used the cheapest bidder to complete the detailed risk assessments and the report for every site was poor quality and generic. Every report recommended that a UXO banksman and GPR survey was required, with a magnetometer testing at pile locations. 

Bombs Away was approached by the main contractor that had been selected to construct the buildings. We peer reviewed the reports and proved that the risk of a WW2 air dropped bomb on each site was less that 1 in 15,000. We recommended that only a UXO emergency response plan and toolbox talks were required.

The cost of the mitigation originally recommended was in excess of £2 million, taking 2-3 weeks per site, when other works would have been disrupted too. Our costs were a fraction of 1% of the money saved, which was split between the council and contractor on a profit share basis. 

No UXO was found on the sites when construction works commenced.

Time on site saved: 1 week  

Cost saving: £300k

A developer had previously commissioned a low cost UXO risk assessment with another consultancy. The site had been used to manufacture explosives during WW2, but the developer did not believe that the risk was as high as suggested by the other consultancy and doubted that the mitigation was warranted. 

Bombs Away were approached to complete a new and independent risk assessment, without sight of the previous report. We found detailed records and historical information that clearly showed the risk of encountering UXO was very low. Over £300,000 was saved by the developer. 

No UXO was found on the site during the project.