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Monitoring
tips
The term 'tip' refers to any bank or pile of excavated material
and includes screening banks (also
known as amenity banks), soil storage mounds, stockpiles of
finished products, waste tips or material used as part of restoration.
All these structures must be monitored to ensure that they
do not collapse or slip. Failures in tips made from excavated
materials are often preceded by well-known signs of movement,
known as 'distress'.
These signs include cracking, settlement, bulging, slumping
and the seepage of water from the structure. If observed early
enough, and recognised, appropriate measures can be taken to
prevent movement and instability in the tip.
It is also important to ensure that any tip is not positioned
too close to the edge of an excavation where the weight of
the tipped material may create pressure and cracking in the
crest (where the excavated slope meets the surrounding land
surface). This could result in the undercutting of the tip,
which would cause it to move.
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 Landslip
caused by saturation with water of unconsolidated material.
Monitoring for these signs of 'distress' are required throughout
the life of an active quarry, as part of the operational rules,
but it is also appropriate after closure and restoration. At
that time the responsibility for slope stability transfers
from the Health & Safety Executive's Quarry Inspectorate
to the local Environmental Health Officers.
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