The government are seeking new ways of addressing land contamination that promote a low carbon footprint, reduce the strain on over burdened landfill sites and reduces cost. Approved Site Investigations Ltd (ASI) are now able to offer an alternative remediation method that is designed primarily for soils containing heavy metals (abundant within the Southwest of England due to regional geological mineralization and historic mining activity).

The current site remediation practice within the UK is to 'strip and dump', involving the removal of contaminated soils to landfill and replacing with clean certified soil within areas designated for open amenity usage, such as gardens. Typical depth of contaminated soil for removal to landfill ranges from 0.50m to 1.0m.


The ©2007 Land Grid Method or LGM is a remarkably simple 'common sense' approach to current practices. Primarily intended for garden zones and open areas of ground, such as parks, golf courses and similar applications, the method works on the principle of containment, leaving the greater majority of existing contaminated soil on-site.

Upon removal of any excess soil, the newly exposed ground profile is overlain with a geotextile and geogrid, a strong plastic mesh that prevents the penetration of a spade or similar hand held garden tool into the underlying contaminated soil horizon. This is then subsequently covered by clean certified topsoil to a minimum depth of 0.25m, seeded or turfed.

The intention of the LGM method is to act as a visual and physical warning, by hindering further penetration into the substrate via the geogrid and geotextile. This brakes the linkage between the two soil horizons and is ideally suited for lawned areas, which can be further enhanced with small plant species not intended to be consumed, such as flowering plants.

Approved Site Investigations Ltd offers the LGM remedial scheme via our Phase 3 Site Remediation reports which are specific to your development. For further information contact: Telephone: 01209 204744, fax: 01209 204766 or email: admin@asiconsultancy.co.uk