Engineering & Land Surveying

Civil engineers investigate and design infrastructure within the built environment. From roads and bridges to sewers and reservoirs, civil engineers design crucial infrastructure for society. At Berrys, our Civil Engineering team provides a diverse range of consultancy services covering many disciplines including structural engineering, highways, road safety and traffic engineering, sewers, urban design, sustainable drainage (SuDS), flood risk assessment and flood resilience, site levels and earthworks.

Sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) are surface water drainage infrastructures designed to be more sustainable than traditional pipe-based drainage systems. True SuDS involve multiple components, often provided in a ‘SuDS train’, which deal with surface water as a commodity and not as waste. SuDS should be designed to treat surface water and remove contaminants, capture and store water for reuse, allow water to drain to the ground and slow water flow rates through the system to provide attenuation. They should also provide wider amenity enhancements and biodiversity with habitat for wildlife.

When planning new developments, a Drainage Strategy should be produced in the early stages of investigating development options. Since SuDS are mandatory for all major development sites in the UK, this will ensure that SuDS are accommodated as an integral part of the scheme.

Highway engineers design the roads we all use for travel. As we use roads so often, we often take for granted how complex our road network system is. The work required behind the scenes to design, improve and maintain roads is vast and easily overlooked. Roads provide critical infrastructure to society and therefore highway engineers ensure that traffic can keep flowing.

Flood Risk Assessments known as ‘FRAs’ (or Flood Consequence Assessments in Wales) investigate whether a proposed development site is susceptible to any particular flood risk issues which might require mitigation, and whether it would lead to a wider catchment or risk of flooding downstream.

FRAs are required for most larger development proposals, or where there is an existing flood risk issue affecting the site. During a strategic flood risk assessment, your engineer will gather and interpret data for a number of factors. This allows us to judge the level of risk posed and whether targeted flood mitigation measures are required.

The term ‘section agreements’ is often used to encompass the legal agreements required between local authorities and developers for the adoption of public infrastructure. These fall under three main agreement types; Section 38 and Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980, and Section 104 of the Water Industries Act 1991.

Section 38 and Section 278 of the Highways Act 1980 concern the construction and adoption of new public highways and work carried out to modify and improve existing public highways. Meanwhile, Section 104 of the Water Industries Act 1991 concerns the construction and adoption of new public sewers and SuDS.

Transport planning involves investigating, planning and designing a transport system and infrastructure. Within the development sector, transport planners consider how people will travel to and from a development, whether it be a place of work, a residence, or an amenity or public sector facility. This includes checking that roads and junctions have sufficient capacity, the availability of public modes of transport, and how developments can make better use of and promote sustainable travel.