I am currently working on AS2870 site classification reports for more than 50 separate lots in a residential subdivision in Launceston. The job involves about three weeks of field work, and a similar time in the office. The subdivision is Eastmans Green in Newstead, and the developer is Ecoast Homes Pty Ltd from St. Helens.
I did the original geotechnical investigations for the subdivision in two stages in 2009 and 2011, and in what I believe may be a first in property development in Tasmania, Ecoast Homes has made my reports (and one of my sample AS2870 reports) available online for interested parties. Each of the AS2870 reports will also be available free of charge to stakeholders.
I was asked to produce the site classification reports when a local practitioner did a substandard job on one of the lots offered for sale. The sale fell through. The issue, I think, was that the practitioner’s (brief) report wrongly stated that the lot was in a “known declared landslide zone”, when in fact it was in the Medium landslide planning hazard band. Not the same thing at all. The report provided a Class P classification but also stated that more information (from others) was needed before a founding depth could be provided.
Clause 2.1.3 of AS2870:2011 allows a practitioner to classify a site as Class P and call for more geotechnical information, but it hardly facilitates land development if the practitioner walks away from providing the extra geotechnical work. My point is that if a practitioner offers a professional site classification service, and clearly feels capable of classifying a site, he or she also ought to be able to provide (or arrange to provide) all the input needed to complete the job.
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