Geotechnical Monitoring

Our primary contribution to the industry in regards to geotechnical monitoring is the use of TDR and OTDR techniques for rock and soil displacement.

TDR and OTDR allow relatively inexpensive, real time, detection of shear displacement in almost any rock or soil mass. The installation of coaxial or fiber optic cables in geotechnically sensitive areas can allow detection of sub-surface shear prior to complete failure of the rock or soil mass. This includes road cuts, dam abutments, pipeline alignments, open pit highwalls, landslides, etc. In addition, TDR/OTDR can be utilized in areas subject to undercutting and collapse such as building sites and roads over historically mined areas, areas subject to sinkholes, and active underground mining.

TDR/OTDR's real time, digital nature allows remote application of the technique with telemetry communication of the data from the monitoring area to a central site for near instantaneous analysis. This provides real time warnings regarding subsurface rock or soil displacement.

In addition to our standard monitoring work, we have been involved in several special "one-of" projects. This includes the development of special high temperature soil moisture probes for TDR moisture measurement, the usage of TDR/OTDR for verifying installed soil nail/rock bolt lengths, development of flash flood or lahar warning systems, development of remote subisdence warning devices, etc. Some of these items may be found under our "new innovations" button on the menu to the left.