<b><b>Andrew Leech looks at the groundworks market and finds that there is much research under way to establish the best systems and products for dealing with building on contaminated land</b></b><br><b>With the current industry focus on using brownfield sites, many of today's groundwork solutions are oriented towards building on made ground where varying degrees of contamination were present or, indeed, may still exist. </b><br><b>Parts A (structure), C (site preparation) and D (toxic substances) of the Building Regs are relevant. Part A (Structure) is due to go to consultation this summer and, according to the former DETR, this is still on schedule. There are no plans just yet to scrutinise the other two parts, although Nottingham Trent University is presently working on new values for acceptable levels of toxic substances but they are unlikely to be available for many months. </b><br><b><b>Information dearth </b></b><br> The Building Research Establishment maintains a vigilant watching brief on toxic issues and one ongoing project it has embarked on for the former DETR is accurately assessing the potential effects of contaminated land on below ground building materials used in foundations, drains, sewers and services. Although there is a lot of published theory, there's a dearth of factual information.<p></p><p> …