The great proliferation of new trenchless technologies and the equal proliferation in the companies providing them has led inevitably to failures and performance shortfalls. As new markets develop this is an integral part of the progress they make. Forensic analysis of these situations by Jason Consultants underpins two important areas: understanding the fundamental cause of the problem so that it is rectified and not repeated; and identifying remediation so that the installation can be restored to its required performance.

Understanding the root causes of the problem may require laboratory testing of materials to confirm their performance characteristics, review of design and specification, installation practice and fitness for purpose. Errors or oversights at any stage can cause lack of performance and all are thoroughly reviewed.

Once the cause of the problem is clear we focus on the more positive aspect of solving it. This may be either remediation of the specific situation concerned or a development programme of the material or product to improve or extend its performance so that it can be safely used in similar applications in the future. In the short term it may be necessary to restrict the application range of the product until the development has taken place, thus minimizing risk to users and vendors alike.

A forensic analysis undertaken rigorously and professionally enables all parties to understand the problem, to learn from it, and to decide on and implement changes so that it is not repeated in the future. Similarly this clear understanding can be used to identify other installations at risk and to remediate them as a high priority.

Forensic analysis can also be undertaken with the purpose of identifying responsibility for the failure. This may feed into claims, arbitration or court proceedings in which the forensic analysis is closely scrutinized and our analysis procedures are proven to be sufficiently robust to withstand such hostile scrutiny.