This dataset is a characterisation of the soil and rocks and the potential bulking factor (likely excavated volume increases) at Formation (local to regional) level for Great Britain. The data is categorised into Class, characteristics of similar soils and rocks and Bulking Factor, range or ranges of % bulking. The excavation of rocks or soils is usually accompanied by a change in volume. This change in volume is referred to as ‘bulking’ and the measure of the change is the ‘bulking factor’. The bulking factor is used to estimate the likely excavated volumes that will need to be moved, stored on site, or removed from site. It is envisaged that the 'Engineering Properties: Bulking of soils and rocks' dataset will be of use to companies involved in the estimation of the volume of excavated material for civil engineering operations. These operations may include, but are not limited to, resource estimation, transportation, storage, disposal and the use of excavated materials as engineered fill. It forms part of the DiGMap Plus dataset series of GIS layers which describe the engineering properties of materials from the base of pedological soil down to c. 3m depth (ie the uppermost c.2m of geology). These deposits display a variable degree of weathering, but still exhibit core engineering characteristics relating to their lithologies.
