Site investigation - Geotechnical Investigation and Design Tables - page 14

Table 1.15 Typical productivity for costing (Queensland Australia).

Drilling Soil Soft rock Hard rock

Land based drilling 20 m/day 15 m/day 10 m coring/day

Cone penetration testing
(excludes dissipation testing)

100 m/day Not applicable Not applicable

(Highly dependent on weather/tides/location)

Non Cyclonic Months Cyclonic Month

Floating
barge

Open water Land based 50% Land based 30%

Sheltered water Land based 70% Land based 50%

(Dependent on weather/location)

Non Cyclonic Months Cyclonic Month

Jack up
barge

Open water Land based 70% Land based 50%

Sheltered water Land based 90% Land based 70%

•

Over water drilling costed on daily rates as cost is barge dependent rather than
metres drilled.

•

Jack up barge has significant mobilisation cost associated - depends on location
from source.

1.16 Site investigation costs
•

Often an owner needs to budget items (to obtain at least preliminary funding).
The cost of the SI can be initially estimated depending on the type of project.

•

The actual SI costs will then be refined during the definition of needs phase
depending on the type of work, terrain and existing data.

•

A geo-environmental investigation is costed separately.

Table 1.16 Site investigation costs (Rowe, 1972).

Type of work % of capital cost of works % of earthworks and foundation costs

Earth dams 0.89-3.30 1.14-5.20

Railways 0.60-2.00 3.5

Roads 0.20-1.55 1.60-5.67

Docks 0.23-0.50 0.42-1.67

Bridges 0.12-0.50 0.26-1.30

Embankments 0.12-0.19 0.16-0.20

Buildings 0.05-0.22 0.50-2.00

Overall mean 0.7 1.5