Fistral Sea Essay

Document Title: Desk Study for Engineering Geology Field Course

Contents

1. Fistral Beach, Towan Beach and Killacourt cove in Newquay 3
2. Watergate Bay from the cliffs adjacent to the Watergate bay Hotel (OS 184139, 64963) to Creepinghole Point 4
3. Bude from Compass Cove to Maer Down 5
4. Cheesewring Quarry on Bodmin Moor 6
5. Portreath for Cunnard Hotels Limited 7

Appendix Figure 1: Location Plan Newquay 3 Figure 2: Geological Map Newquay 4 Figure 3 : Topographical Map Newquay 4 Figure 4 : Location Map Watergate Bay 5 Figure 5 : Geological Map Watergate Bay 5 Figure 6 : Topographical Map Watergate Bay 5 Figure 7 : Location Map Bude 6 Figure 8 : Geological Map Bude 6 Figure 9 : Topographical Map Bude 6 Figure
site A and site B in Figure 13 : Location Plan Portreath are both located in the national grid reference of SW 65074, 45351. Both these sites will use the Battery Hill road as their primary access road to get all the necessary plant, material and labour to the main construction site. Site B does not require any additional temporary road construction to support access to the main site from the bridleway and battery hill road. Whereas due to close proximity of the neighbouring properties and site A’s location, the access road will be long and circumferencing the neighbours and national rail properties.

Topography of the site
With Figure 15 : Topographical Map Portreath in reference, Portreath has typical hilly topography and the associated natural vegetation of scrubs and grasslands. Both the sites are located at the sharp-end of the gradient of the western hill. There are no landslides deposits recorded at or near both the sites. Hence, completing the Non-householder validation document with the Cornwall council, in accordance with the Part 2A, Environment Protection Act 1990 would help secure planning for the hotels.

Geology of the site – rock/soil types, mineral veins, faults, folds, age of the rocks,
“The stability of slopes varies with inclination of discontinuity surfaces such as faults, joints, bedding planes with the rock mass.” (Bray & Hoek, 1977). Simple sliding of the rock mass does not happen merely with the presence of discontinuity. Near location site A, presence of two intersecting faults and bedding planes provides wedge slope failure with a probability to occur with the one of the discontinuity “daylights” at the toe of the vertical slope of a known rock mass. Groundwater is also not a problem since; there is “low productivity indurated multi-layer aquifer with small local yields from secondary factures.” (British Geological Survey, 2013)

Use of local geological materials for construction
Since no chemical contamination has been reported, use of local materials from the tip and other local sources should be allowed after Health & Safety regulations clearance.

Appendix

Figure 1: Location Plan Newquay

Figure 2: Geological Map