Geotechnical Services Brazos Geotech, Inc. (BGI) offers geotechnical services. The objectives of the services are the investigation of sites prior to construction and subsequent quality control.  BGI specializes in small to medium sized commercial and residential projects throughout Arizona and New Mexico.

Geotechnical Soil Investigations:

Geotechnical soil investigations are performed for various purposes. The most common variety assists the structural design of building foundations. A Geotechnical Engineer is retained, typically by an architect, developer, or by a government agency, to provide a report of a geotechnical site investigation at a potential construction site. In general, the report will contain at minimum, the results of soil sampling and testing, recommendations for site preparation, and foundation bearing capacity recommendations. Such reports must be certified by a registered engineer.

BGI owns and operates a CME-55 auger drilling rig mounted on a four wheel drive truck.  The equipment is capable of obtaining soil samples under nearly all conditions encountered.

Soil Compaction Tests:

BGI uses a Troxler 3430 nuclear density gauge for efficient soil compaction testing at residential and commercial project sites.

Two typical scenarios are as follows: In some instances, a geotechnical soil report has already been prepared for the site. BGI will then perform compaction testing as specified in the report, in conjunction with observations to verify that materials and procedures also comply with the report's recommendations. This may fall under the category of "geotechnical special investigation" by some juristictions.

Often, a report has not been previously prepared. In this case, BGI may provide compaction testing. However, it will include a disclaimer that the soil has been compacted, but material suitability (fill and underlying) has not been verified.

In either situation, laboratory testing (Proctor) of site soils needs to be performed to determine maximum dry density of soils prior to BGI's compaction testing or a definative test result cannot be provided until the laboratory test is completed. It is important to note that BGI must be notified as early as possible during the construction phase to reduce risk of failed compaction tests requiring removal of and re-compaction of pad materials.
 

Summary:

Geotechnical investigations ad value by reducing the degree of conservation in the structural design of foundations. This occurs because the geotechnical specialist has the best understanding of the site conditions and can reduce costs by providing recommendations to suit a particular site.   Compaction testing is used as a quality control method to verify that the geotechnical recommendations have been followed.