UK Builds National Geotechnical Data Service

The British Geological Survey is building a national geotechnical data service in the United Kingdom. The project aims to improve management and reuse of data from the roughly £1.2 billion spent annually on ground investigations for construction. Unexpected ground conditions currently cause delays and budget increases for many projects.

The Common Ground project aggregates verified geotechnical data into industry-standard formats. This increased access to consistent information on ground conditions allows project teams to make more informed decisions. Researchers assessed the economic value of existing ground investigation data and studied how best to deliver it to users.

Phase two of the project involves both quantitative and qualitative research to inform product design. Work continues on defining workflows for extracting, standardizing, and assuring the quality of ground investigation data. The service intends to reduce risk and support better decision-making, though a fully functional service is still under development.