Explosive Ordnance Management Services

Unexploded ordnance (UXO) is a common and dangerous form of contamination. UXO poses potential safety risks due to the potential for detonation and the release of chemicals that are hazardous to human health and the environment. The need for caution when working on or around land contaminated with UXO is paramount.

There is also a continued need for Defence and military to process, move and store explosive ordnance (EO) – the management of which touches on performance, people safety, reputational and ecological risks.

GHD is one of the largest providers of military contaminated land services to the Department of Defence, and has well developed competencies in related specialised areas including armouries, weapons training facilities, EO storehouses, range design, urban operations training facilities and driver training.

GHD employs an experienced team of military historians, UXO technicians, geophysicists, military contaminated land specialists and project managers. Central to our capabilities is the unique experience of our team – many are former or current serving (reserve) members of the Australian Defence Force.

Our EO management services (EOMS) team offers extensive solutions across the spectrum of UXO matters and unparalleled results in the design of EO infrastructure projects. We offer a whole of life-cycle EO capability.

GHD’s services include:

Explosive ordnance infrastructure management – advice on storage, transport, licensing, siting, design, construction, audit, safeguarding and master planning of storehouses, workshops, facilities and ranges.

UXO pathfinding – UXO technicians employ sophisticated field detection methods to provide a safe path for others to traverse in high UXO risk areas.

UXO safeguarding – subsurface excavations on Defence land have the potential to encounter UXO. GHD’s UXO technicians use safeguarding methods to test for the presence of UXO as excavations proceed to enable drilling and earthworks to safely proceed.

UXO survey – systematic surface and subsurface searches of areas to identify and record the location and nature of a potential UXO.

EO remediation management – project and program management of EO disposal programs.

EO quality assurance/ control – systematic actions that provide confidence in services to satisfy contracted requirements and finished products for quality.

Military history assessment – desktop research activities to understand the historical use of land and the potential for EO and UXO to be present from military training or wartime activities.

Risk assessment – use of established frameworks to assess the hazard risk of EO, taking into consideration a range of site specific factors including the use of the land and the likelihood and nature of potential UXO presence.