Geotechnical Drilling Keystone An Overview the Functions of Geotechnical Drilling

Keystone property owners and developers can turn to geotechnical drilling service providers for assistance with drilling that can be used to evaluate the suitability and even the safety of an area of land.

What is Geotechnical Drilling?

Keystone geotechnical drilling service providers can assist with a number of different situations. One commonplace purpose for geotechnical drilling is to evaluate the composition, integrity and suitability of the land in a particular location.

Geotechnical drilling involves bringing out portable drilling rigs that are positioned at strategic locations on the property in question. The drilling technicians oversee the process of drilling into the ground and even down into the underlying bedrock.

The drilling process can be used to extract what’s called a core sample, which is a vertical column of earth that can be sent to a laboratory for analysis of the composition and integrity. This is critical information when it comes to evaluating the property for its suitability for a particular type of building project. This insight makes geotechnical drilling critical for developers and builders. In some cases, the building plans may be altered to accommodate the unique composition of the earth in a particular location.

There’s also another common use of geotechnical drilling. Keystone natives often hire a drilling company in cases where a possible sinkhole site is suspected. Sinkholes form when an underground void forms, often due to the dissolution of limestone bedrock. Limestone dissolves when exposed to relatively mild acids which are found in groundwater, resulting in a cavity that can collapse, forming a sinkhole.

Geotechnical drilling rigs can detect these underground voids or areas of degraded limestone that may be subject to problems in the near future. Based on the results of the drilling, sinkhole remediation efforts may be initiated. This can include measures such as drilling into the void and filling it with cement so it does not collapse into a sinkhole in the future. In other cases, the remediation measures may include stabilizing a structure by running metal poles into the bedrock. Those poles are then secured to the structure’s foundation, serving as a support in case the ground does give way. In this case, it’s important to know the depth and quality of the underlying limestone bedrock and that’s exactly where geotechnical drilling can be useful.

Geotechnical drilling operations can take anywhere from a day or two to several weeks, depending upon the nature of the project and the size of the site.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Amdrill Inc*