OR/15/065 Appendix 7 - Use for engineered fill classification descriptions

Entwisle, D, Lee, K A, and Lawley, R S. 2015. User guide for ‘BGS Civils’ - a suite of engineering properties datasets. British Geological Survey Internal Report, OR/15/065.

Explanation of the 'fill type' descriptor

Fill Code(s)	Fill type	Meaning
0,0A	Mixed 'soil' fill	Mixed coarse and fine engineering ‘soils’
1,1A,1B,1C,1D	Coarse 'granular' soil fill	Coarse-grained engineering soils
2A,2B,2C,2D,2E,2F,2G	Fine 'cohesive' fill	Fine-grained engineering soils
3,3A,3B,3C	Chalk fill	Chalk materials
6,6A,6B,6C,6D	Rock fill	Generic ‘rock’ materials
7A,7B,7C	Mixed rock and 'soil' fill	Mixed ‘rock’ and engineering ‘soil’ materials
8	Unsuitable for fill	Unsuitable for fill (contains unsuitable materials, i.e. Peat)
9	Unknown	Rock/Soil type is unknown, suitability is not yet known, or site is located in a body of water

Description of the engineering fill materials

FILL_USES	DETAIL
	Both fine and coarse beds, generally soil, ‘cohesive’ and ‘coarse’ fill
Mixed 'soil' fill (partly unsuitable)	Both fine and coarse beds, ‘cohesive’ and ‘coarse’ fill, may be partly unsuitable for engineered fill
Coarse 'granular' soil fill	Coarse ‘granular’ fill (sand, gravel, possible cobbles)
	Well-graded sand and gravel ‘granular’ fill
	Uniform-graded sand or gravel ‘granular’ fill
	Well-graded coarse soil, ‘granular’ fill containing cobbles
Coarse 'granular' soil fill (partly unsuitable)	Generally coarse, may be partly unsuitable material
Fine 'cohesive' fill	Generally suitable for ‘cohesive’ engineering fill
Fine 'cohesive', dry fill	Generally ‘dry cohesive’ fill
Gravel clay	Mostly gravelly clay ‘stony cohesive’ fill, may contain sand and gravel beds or silt and clay beds
Fine soil (silty)	Silty ‘cohesive’ fill
Fine soil (sulphide/sulphate)	Fine ‘cohesive’ fill that may contain sulphide or sulphate
Fine soil (specialist clay)	Contains specialist clays commonly of very high or extremely high plasticity clay
Fine soil ('wet')	‘Cohesive’ material that may be ‘too wet’ (in its typical natural state) for engineered fill
Chalk fill	Chalk
	Chalk with flint
	Northern Province Chalk
	Chalk and calcareous mudstone
Rock fill	Rock fill but may have higher grade fill uses
	Rock fill that has been used for crushed rock aggregate
	Rock fill that has been used for higher value uses than rock fill or aggregate
	Rock fill with mixed lithology, which may have different uses
Rock fill (sulphide or sulphate)	Rock fill sometimes with mixed lithologies that may contain sulphide or sulphate
Mixed rock and soil	Mixed materials uses: Rock fill and/or coarse 'granular' fill (coarse rock sandstone, breccias, conglomerate or sand, gravel)
	Mixed rock fill and ‘cohesive’ or coarse 'granular' fill
Mixed rock and soil (sulphide/sulphate)	Mixed rock fill and ‘cohesive’ fill sometimes coarse 'granular' fill, ‘cohesive’ fill may contain sulphide or sulphate
Unsuitable for fill	Generally unsuitable may have special uses identified during the project or require special processing
Unknown	Unknown material or suitability

Use of the unit as identified from BRITPITS (OTHER_USE)
The possible alternative or recorded use of the geological materials as in BRITPITS, which is the BGS database for extracted minerals in the UK (Cameron, 2011). There are multiple entries where the units are used for different purposes. This may be for the same lithology or for different lithologies found at the quarry/pit (at different depths or parts of the excavation). Note that this does not mean that the entire unit is used for that purpose, in many cases, only part of the unit might be used. The following descriptive terms are used:

• Used as general aggregate (but may have high value uses);
• Rocks for aggregate use requiring crushing prior to use (crushed rock aggregate);
• Aggregate with high value uses (railway ballast, road aggregate, armour rock);
• Building sand, concrete sand, asphalting sand;
• Silica sand, glass sand, foundry and moulding sand, cleaning sand;
• Building stone, slate, decorative stone;
• Clay for bricks, tiles, pipes;
• Clay for ceramics, pottery (whiteware);
• Clay for paper making, fillers, fullers earth;
• Coal;
• Gypsum, calcium carbonate (limestone, chalk), fluorspar, cement (calcium carbonate, clay or mudstone);
• Peat products;
• Unknown product but quarried ground (unspecified use in Britpits).