Exploratory work will take place ahead of the construction of nearly 700 new homes near High Park in Southport.
Homes England is keen to operate a ‘trial site’ on land the the south of Crowland Street and east of Foul Lane in Southport, for up to 18 months.
The scheme would include the temporary use of the land as a trial site, including the construction of two earthworks embankments 2.5 metres in height, a trial sewer, and a temporary material storage area.
Homes England has submitted a planning application to Sefton Council.
They said: “The use of trial embankments is common practice for the type of ground conditions encountered in Southport.”
Homes England is planning to build an estimated 678 new homes in the area, which includes the former Kew Park and Ride Site, which was recently disposed of by the council.
In the application, Jan Lourens at Tetra Tech Planning said: “The main component of the application seeks permission for the construction of two trial embankments next to each other.
“The trial embankments are also referred to as surcharge trials. The embankments will be 35m x 25m in size each with a maximum height of 2.5m.
“The locations for the trial embankments and trial sewer have been identified as the most suitable for the trials due to the ground conditions identified during the site investigation works.
“Access to the trial sites will be principally via the existing access on Foul Lane into the former Park and Ride site.
“Access may also be taken from the existing entrance on Crowland Street, as a secondary access point. It may be necessary to form a temporary access track from these access points to the trial site locations. This will involve putting down some hardcore / crushed building rubble along the proposed route should the track become difficult to navigate.
“The purpose of the trial embankment /surcharge is to assess the geotechnical conditions of the underlying soils of the site for the primary and secondary compression (surcharging) under a proposed development for housing.
“The compression, which is also sometimes referred to as settlement, is the amount by which the ground level gets pushed down by the weight of the proposed new development.
“The primary settlement is the more immediate depression that takes place in the first six months.
“The secondary settlement is the remaining settlement that can take place over a much longer period and is sometimes referred to as ‘creep’ because it is less substantial than the primary settlement but over time it could still affect structures in the ground.
“A series of boreholes will be excavated through the embankment and into the existing ground and a variety of monitoring equipment will be placed in the trial embankments.
“The results from these trials will determine the full ground conditions strategy for the site.
“The embankment is required to be in place and monitored for a minimum of six months from its completion to collect accurate and robust data to inform future technical works.
“We are requesting flexibility in this to allow for a maximum of 18 months to ensure sufficient data is collected and allow removal of the trial embankment at a suitable time of the year (during drier summer periods).
“It is also proposed to put in a short section of sewer of approximately 20 m in length to assess how the sewer responds to the soft ground conditions. This will involve a linear excavation of 20m long by up to 5m deep. There will be no above ground development and the proposed location is to the southeast of Fine Jane’s Brook.
“Lastly, the proposal also includes a temporary storage area for materials on the southern part of the former Kew Park and Ride site. This will comprise an area of approximately 40m by 70m.”
The application site area is approximately 0.89 ha intotal.
It sits within a larger site that is currently vacant but is allocated for residential development in the Sefton Local Plan and is wholly owned by Homes England.
This site allocation is located on the southern fringe of the Southport urban area, with industrial and some residential uses located to the north and west, and open countryside to the east.
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