StreetWerkz

So my main focus of the webinar today is going to be talking about the testing requirement wit As a business we work predominantly wit That involves consultancy, testing and then onward movement of wastes, specifically contaminated wastes, will be one of our specialities. From a streetworks UK perspective, we're an affiliate member, we have been involved with several rounds of the trials that went underwent in the last couple of years to lead to the point where t So we're quite well placed to provide some context as to some of the challenges and the opportunities and just some of the considerations that all of your businesses are going to need to have with regards to the testing element of the protocol. We are obviously working with quite a lot of the contractors already as well in regards to getting their plans in place for the 1st of October and that's provided a really good insight for us as a business who aren't a contractor, aren't a utility contractor as to some of your challenges and some of the ways that each individual company are taking on that challenge. So hopefully we can provide some decent information but also some opinions on some of the best ways to move forward. So what we're going to cover today is what the testing requirements are of the protocol w Some of the on-site testing parts of the risk assessment, the sampling and testing requirements, any potential contamination risks, what actually then assessing the data means and then t Some other challenges w So what are the testing requirements of the protocol? So as I guess a very brief plotted history since 2018 I believe there's been a position statement in place that essentially has allowed a lot of utility waste to go untested via a lab to allow it to be classified and then there's been a couple of think three rounds of trials which has been essentially providing a correlation between a risk assessment based approach to classification of waste and lab data which So as it'starting 1st of October you're looking at Q4 of 2025 and the sampling n So if you look at what the requirement is for Q4 2025 that is based on your 2023 n So as a guide if you are doing a thousand excavations a year you would need to sample from 10 excavations per year and then analyze those. Each excavation won't necessarily always be one sample you'll need to sample the waste that are generated from that excavation so often it might be an Ashveld layer and then a sub base layer or alternatively it might be a grass verge in w So the excavation n So yet to a w I was just saying to Clive slightly earlier that we work across the construction and demolition sector and they aren't in a fortunate position that they have a risk assessment based approach to classification they have to follow the guidance that says it always needs to be tested. Due to the nature of the utility works obviously that isn't always possible but the risk assessment approach shouldn't be and the approval of it should not be taken lightly because without it testing would be extremely expensive and obviously would be very detrimental to the work that utility contractors are doing. So making sure that the 1% is done I t So people if they're not hitting that 1% n So I've taken t So you can see right at the top there the testing starts in earnest from October 1st or essentially Q4 2025 at w They then going to get assessed by the Environment Agency and that's and then conversations will be have between Street Works UK about how that's working. Again these are taken from the protocol doc So what is going to be monitored is how good the correlation is between the data. If the correlation is low that is going to affect or lower than hoped then that is going to affect sampling n So you can see here in the bottom right hand corner of the screen there is a correlation for ongoing testing based sorry percentage for ongoing testing based on the accuracy of your correlation. So if you are running say for instance 100 excavations and sampling from 100 excavations per year and you're getting over a 93 accuracy and correlation between your risk assessment and your lab data your ongoing testing will remain at the 1% of excavations. However it drops between 85 and 92. 99. Essentially the amount of testing you're going to have to do will double and if it drops below 85 it's going to treble. So not only is that obviously going to be a So a lot of the people we've been talking to now is all about how to get that accurate data quality risk assessments done proper samples assessed properly so that correlation is as Also t So a drop in correlation below 70% I t Now as I'm sure So wit One of those is pack spray which I'm sure is widely used anyway but pack spray and asphalt to assess the other is litmus paper to determine pH levels wit Again these aren't mandatory but what they might do is allow you to get a better correlation with what ultimately comes back in the lab data. So t With pack spray again pack spraying the asphalt to look for discoloration is going to give a really good guide on the Now we as a business are going to be out going out and we're going to be doing a lot of sampling ourselves for a lot of clients and again this is just an idea that we've had that might help with some of your site teams to aid in this process so we have designed a sampling board so when our engineers go to site and do pack spraying they would have this board with them it would allow them to make note of the date and all the permit and excavation they're at and the address it provides them with instructions as what to do but it also allows them to pack spray put it on this white surface do a color comparison take some photographs so you can evidence your process you can evidence the colors change on the pack spray if there is any and it would just I think mean your on-site teams we appreciate we'll have a lot of different jobs to do I provide with a real simple and clear way to determine if they are following the protocol directly so as a guide it would look like this on site now that's a different board that we use but this is just for context really but providing some simple tools like that to your site teams is going to mean that they're going to be able to assess that waste more accurately and likely get a better correlation between the lab sample and between the risk assessment so what needs to be sampled and tested in a lab so there's essentially three different waste streams that have been specified within the protocol one being Ashfield the blacktop layout from an excavation and that is specifically looking at the likelihood presence of coal tar so the testing suite specified which is in the protocol is predominantly based around hydrocarbons and then looking so a pah double plot ratio which is specified in the protocol essentially what that looks at is the pah results and then it's plotting the likely source of that contamination so you might have elevated hydrocarbons but it might not have come from coal tar but it might have come from something else like a fuel spill for instance and that double plot ratio needs to be done as part of the assessment then you have got two soil samples so you essentially they are being classed as made ground and soft ground so made ground would be any soils sub base layers etc that have got anything other than soil in them so it could be an aggregate it could be demolition waste it could be rubbish who knows what's been put in the ground and this is where there is a higher chance of contamination being present than soft ground which would be predominantly naturally occurring soils the testing suites for the both are very similar the only difference is the analysis for asbestos in a made ground sample because asbestos is very unlikely to be present in a soft ground sample but asbestos fibers which are essentially invisible very likely to be present in made ground and if you do find asbestos you have to quantify it there are also some other contaminants that are optional to look at and that would be based on visual assessments so for instance VOCs SVOCs which measure volatile organic carbon that would predominantly be present if there are hydrocarbons in the ground so it might be that if you are taking a sample from a site where they're hydrocarbon staining or odor that you might submit some the samples for some additional analysis but that's professional judgment and ultimately needs to be driven by somebody that knows what they're looking for and understands the testing process so one of the main considerations for taking soil samples or taking waste samples and then putting them into a lab is quality of sample to get compliant accredited and accurate results and so what we'll talk about here is just quite a few considerations around essentially what is getting some soil or some asphalt into some tubs and jars getting into a lab but it whilst that sounds simple there are a lot of st Finally what you want to make sure is those tubs and jars are labeled correctly so very important is a sampling date and the sampling date I'll come on to in a little bit later but also making sure you're writing your excavation n The transportation of samples is also very important. Accreditations with labs dictate that soil samples and asphalt samples do need to be temperature controlled they need to make sure that soil samples aren't affected by direct sunlight you need to have ice packs, cool packs or cool blocks in however you're transporting your soil samples and your asphalt samples as well again if they turn up to a lab without that the lab is very likely to provide deviation on your results which can mean that the results aren't valid it also does help you keep the samples together So most labs will provide cool boxes the blue boxes you can see on the left hand side there you also can use and we do use cardboard boxes as long as there is a call back in them we've worked with our lab to allow them to provide for accredited results with samples that are sent by a cardboard box because ultimately it'still temperature controlled with a cool box called block or call pack and it'still protected from direct sunlight. All of the samples that are sent to a lab must go with a chain of custody which can either be included in the box or emailed over and ultimately this is going to provide the lab with all the information they require in terms of permit n It'sampling date very important because sampling date will correlate with when the how long it takes to get the samples to the lab and again that can have an effect on accreditation and deviation of results and it will also tell you what you want it to be sampled for so you can see the col So important that you do a chain of custody one of the ideas that we have is You need to make sure you get your samples to the lab on time nearly all labs will provide a courier service w Now that does change depending on what contaminants are being tested for instance asbestos in soils you could hold an indefinite amount of time and you'd still get accredited results but things So accurate sampling means accurate results and I t So one of the things that has to be analyzed for is pH levels now typically pH in soil is non-hazardous we very rarely see alkaline or acidic results in soils however that can be thrown out so if you're taking a soil sample and you're including concrete in it or cement products in it that go to a lab the way the lab then treats that soil samples they dry it out they crush it down essentially to a powder and that's allows them to put it through their machines for analysis but the process of crushing down concrete or cement will Now that would mean openly that you'd look at a waste on site you might risk assess it and say well that doesn't look contaminated there's no risks of it you might even do the litmus paper test on the soil and it comes back as being negative but if you include concrete in your sample it goes to a lab you might end up with a positive or a spike and an elevated pH result what's also useful if you are taking soil samples especially in considering when you're considering the Ashfell and a soil sample so obviously there's a requirement for all contractors now to segregate waste streams on a site so Ashfell should be kept separate from soil but I think it's inevitable that cross contamination will happen it's almost impossible to fully segregate everything just because of the nature of work and nature of the ground but it's really important that Ashfell fragments aren't included in a soil sample because they will It's very difficult when you get the results to fully determine that those hydrocarbon increase levels have been caused by Ashfell and again it might mean that where a site assessment has shown it to be green you might end up with a hazardous result albeit in real terms the waste probably isn't likely to be hazardous but because of the inclusions of the Ashfell that might affect the results so I would know whoever's taking that sample needs to be really vigilant on excluding wherever possible any Ashfell was any Ashfell from that soil sample and specifically given that the amber jars are the ones that are assessed for hydrocarbons in the lab make sure the minim Now I know that asbestos is or asbestos fragments being present in an excavation excluded from a risk assessment process however it'still worth mentioning that asbestos is still one of the contaminants that is required to be assessed wit 1 being the key difference between a hazardous and a non-hazardous result or you know a visible fragment being present so as a minim So coal tire and Ashfell so our knowledge of the industry and the work that we do across lots of construction sites tells us that I t So there's a bit of history any road that's laid pre-1990 or very late 80s has got quite a high chance of coal tire being present within the binder to some level and even if your roads have been resurfaced or relayed some of the deeper layers of Ashfell are still The pack spray will provide a really good indication as to the likelihood of coal tire being present but as will the appearance so coal tire often has quite a distinct odor it has a sticky appearance as you can see a really good example of that picture there on the right hand side and site history So hydrocarbon contamination so t