Posted By Stephen Ashton Does anyone have experience of ground investigation / excavation / construction work in areas suspected to contain a 'larger than normal' amount of unexploded WWII ordnance? This is not a hypothetical issue. We are in the process of starting ground investigations (some drilling, some exploratory digging) on a site, for a job that will involve substantial excavation (potentially including blasting), and heavy vehicular traffic. We have recently been told that a 'decoy' airfield was established in the area during the war to attract bombs away from the 'real thing' nearby. By these accounts, the decoy was reasonably successful.... The ground is generally soft alluvial deposit. I have read that around 10% of all ordnance and up to 50% of incendiary ordnance fails to explode when impacting soft ground - and penetrates up to 15 feet. The area has seen agricultural use only since the war, so any bombs that failed to explode on impact are likely to be there still. I have heard of a double fatality in Germany a couple of years ago from this risk, and am reluctant to rank it as insignificant on this site now that we have evidence (albeit, at present, only hearsay) that it MAY be anything but. Does anyone have experience of assessing this type of risk - and implementing appropriate safe systems of work where the risk is assessed as unacceptable? What is the likelihood of activating any device discovered? Are there any relable (and prefereably cheap)means of detection at the sort of depths likely? Are there any publicly available sources of information / maps showing likely ordnance density across Britain? Any help or pointers in the right direction from the H&S community would be appreciated before I consult with the relevant official organisations. Thanks, Steve

Posted By Keith Egerton If your that concerned about the problem, I think the RAF/Ministry of Defence history/archives section may be able to help. I think they have some records/old pictures of bombed airfields etc. Basically at World War 2 level if a string of bombs contained 8 bombs, and an aerial photograp showed 7 bomb explosion craters, with a large gap of undisturbed earth between 5 and 7 - means that number 6 did not explode!! Not sure how you contact them - you could call Geoff Hoon... Guess a senstive metal detector may help, but I would guess you would get a lot of false alarms - broken tractor plows etc - if the ground has been used for agricultural use since WW2.

Posted By Sam Rawcliffe Stephen Zentica are a specialist company dealing with UXBs. Take a look at their website at www.zentica.com In regards to cost, you must balance it against the risk (what would the likelihood be of fatalities and/or multiple injuries?) The cheap option may not be enough !! Regards Sam Rawcliffe

Posted By Derek Holt Stephen, I am an EOD/UXO Engineer and Health, Safety and Quality Manager for a large EOD/UXO project overseas. As such if you need futher assistance by way of advice or contacts to undertake any work then please contact me at the following: Derek@proacsafety.com. You may find that as this was a suspected area where Ordnance was dropped and it adjoins or maybe was once MOD land then they would be responsible for its clearance under Environmental Pollution (UXO is classified under such) Regulations. Such areas are usually assessed and cleared by MOD (former job)prior to being handed over to Local Governement for development etc. Regards Derek