Crossrail UXO Risk Assessment Pre-empting best practice

Summary

Site investigation works undertaken as part of the Crossrail project over the last ten years have involved extensive intrusive works into the ground in areas of London which were known to have been heavily bombed during World War Two. This bombing created a legacy of unexploded ordnance risk to such works. This paper explains how a procedure was developed to enable the risk to the ground investigation works to be assessed and for appropriate and effective measures to be identified where necessary to mitigate this risk. It is shown that the developed procedure is consistent with that now recommended by the CIRIA guide on unexploded ordnance, and provides a practical illustration of how an appropriate risk assessment procedure can avoid extensive and unnecessary mitigation works on site, while ensuring that when mitigation measures are undertaken, it is where and when they are truly needed to enable work to progress safely.

Full Resource