Geotechnical services firm Geotechnology Inc. says in a release that it has added a Geoprobe 3230 Combo Rig to its fleet to better serve the needs of the direct push/direct imaging market.
“We continuously invest in our equipment to provide the most effective, efficient and safe services,” says Jim Howe, Geotechnology vice president of exploration. “With the addition of the Geoprobe, we can provide environmental and geotechnical services with the use of one rig, reducing the costs of multiple deployments which saves time and money on projects, areas which are of utmost importance to our clients.”
The company says the new rig easily moves from direct push to rotary drilling methods (and back), allowing for combined geotechnical exploration and Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) projects to be completed quickly and efficiently.
Geotechnology says the new rig has all of the expected capabilities of a traditional soils rig but with improved rotational speed. These capabilities enable the company to provide more efficient environmental exploration for site assessment, routine well installation, remediation, material injection, and groundwater sampling screening for their clients.
The company says the Geoprobe can direct push to “significant” depths using tool strings ranging from 2-inch to 6-inch outside diameter, including dual-tube sampling for depth-discrete soil sampling in all types of unconsolidated deposits. For work on permanent monitoring wells, Geotechnology says its direct push capabilities greatly reduce the time, cost and volume of investigation derived waste (IDW). It can obtain in-situ groundwater samples and install soil vapor implants easily and quickly with minimal IDW, perform direct injection of remediation materials on contaminated sites, and provide a second pushing platform for cone penetrating testing (CPT).
Geotechnology says that the machine also performs traditional geo-environmental drilling service in a highly efficient manner. This could involve geotechnical drilling using any combination of flight, hollow-stem augers, mud rotary and rock coring up to P-sized core. It will perform all typical geotechnical sampling (SPT, Shelby tubes, etc.), as well as down-hole air hammer drilling for larger-diameter well/instrumentation installations in bedrock, or angle hole drilling. It can provide quicker methods to reach bedrock and core for foundation inspection holes and pier pre-probing, and continuous soil sampling that produces a lined sample.
Safety is a priority with Geotechnology, and the Geoprobe has a swing away operator station that allows the driller to focus his attention directly in the work zone while operating the controls.
The machine is mounted on a tracked carrier, which is a narrower and shorter carrier than traditional soils rigs, and weighs less than 10 tons.
Geotechnology is committed to being an industry leader in exploration services, Howe says.
“Each job brings its own circumstances and challenges and we want to be prepared for whatever is best for our client. Our team reviews each project and its requirements, and then customizes a plan to use the best piece of equipment for the job. The addition of the Geoprobe helps us to accomplish this goal.”
Geotechnology Inc. offers a range of consulting services in applied earth and environmental sciences, including geophysics, water resource management, geotechnical and environmental engineering, materials testing and drilling. For more than 30 years, the company has provided expertise on thousands of major construction projects in the Midwest and Mid-South. Geotechnology is ranked in ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms in 2019. The St. Louis-based company has 10 offices in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas. For more information, visit www.geotechnology.com.
