Streetworks DRA User Guide
Subtitle for Streetworks will go here.
Why we created the Street Works DRA product
The Street Works UK: Material Classification Protocol introduces a more consistent approach to managing excavated materials, but it also creates a new compliance requirement: completing a Desktop Risk Assessment (DRA) before works begin.
We therefore created our Street Works DRA product to make that process simpler, faster and more consistent.
Using authoritative current and historical land-use data, the product helps organisations identify potential contamination risks, support safer on-site decisions and demonstrate robust Protocol compliance.
Understanding our Street Works DRA product
Our Street Works DRA product creates an instant, site-specific and version-controlled report aligned with the Street Works UK: Material Classification Protocol.
We use authoritative and proprietary data, together with defined assessment logic, to complete key parts of the DRA for you.
- Tables B and C are pre-filled, helping you quickly understand the screening results and overall DRA outcome.
- Evidence tables show what has been identified and where, making the findings easy to review.
- Data sources and provenance are clearly shown, providing traceability and confidence in the assessment.
- Editable fields and dropdowns allow you to complete any remaining information quickly.
- If a permit already exists, simply enter the permit number to define the site and generate the assessment.
The data behind the product
The Street Works DRA product is underpinned by three core datasets, each selected and configured to support the requirements of the Street Works DRA methodology.
Historic land use data
- The foundation of the assessment is Groundsure’s unique National Brownfield Risk Model (NBRM). This comprises millions of potentially contaminative land-use features derived from our archive of more than one million historical Ordnance Survey maps, dating back to the 1840s.
- Relevant land-use classes and categories have been selected specifically to align with the Street Works DRA methodology. This dataset is further enhanced with historical environmental permitting records to provide additional context.
Current land use data
- For current land-use information, we use Ordnance Survey’s National Geographic Database (NGD), a highly authoritative source of geographic data for Great Britain.
- Its detailed mapping enables relevant land uses and activities to be identified accurately, with the data categorised and filtered to align with Street Works DRA requirements.
- NGD data can be complex and costly to access on a site-by-site basis. The Groundsure Street Works DRA makes this information accessible within a single assessment, providing organisations with the data they need at site level in a practical and cost-effective way.
Regulatory data
- In order to supplement the mapping data, we also used records of environmental permits to better identify sites with petrol filling activities and waste licences to identify landfills and waste transfer sites.
- The Environment Agency’s current and historical landfill data is also used to identify landfill sites.
The science behind the data
A manual process was undertaken to define the lists. The basis of this was ‘key words’ and/or phrases relating to each land use category (e.g. for ‘Sewage Treatment Works’ search terms included sewage, water, sludge, aeration etc). The land uses were then manually reviewed to confirm inclusion/removal.
No upper limit to the search for a DRA has yet been provided by Street Works UK. In lieu of this guidance, we have chosen to pragmatically limit our search to 50m. Whilst it is possible for contamination migration in the shallow soils and groundwater from an off site source cannot be discounted, the likelihood of this occurring is reduced.
Unexpected contamination from sources not identified in the DRA (which could include from previous pollution incidents or source not included in the Street Works UK methodology is possible, but a visual assessment of waste soils should always be carried out in line with Waste Classification Protocol methodology.