Other Geotechnical Services

Our extensive direct experience with these materials allows us to make informed recommendations in situations where these materials can be substituted for natural resources or other manufactured materials. We have demonstrated the benefits of geosynthetics in various projects including:

• Landfills and impoundments
• Barrier caps and liners for various materials
• Controlled gas migration pathways
• Foundation improvements
• Embankments and slopes
• Roadways
• Dams
• Dewatering or infiltration systems
• Revetments and stream channels
• Shorefront structures, and
• Waterproofing applications.

Geotechnical engineering is integral with various engineering disciplines including civil, construction, environmental, structural, transportation, and hydrology. Concurrent structures are often critical components of infrastructure networks, and are used for support, protection, containment, interception, collection, and isolation systems. GeoInsight has designed and evaluated many types of systems and structures related to their interaction with soil, rock, surface water, and ground water. Additionally, our team has experience collaborating with other design and construction professionals to provide turn-key services for multi-disciplined projects.

Our familiarity with the New England subsurface and cold weather conditions gives us excellent judgment related to drainage, handling, and behavioral characteristics of soils exposed or installed during site development. Pavement designs are prepared corresponding to specific subgrade site conditions—these conditions are often the single most important factor in your pavement performance. Using our extensive experience with soil, drainage, and frost penetration, GeoInsight personnel have cost-effectively consulted on projects involving flexible asphalt pavements, rigid concrete pavements, modular precast pavers, and permeable pavement.

Waterfront structures require special assessment with regard to geotechnical concerns. Wave action, erosion, tidal influences, ice pressures, and the typical subsurface deposits associated with marine or lacustrine environments present analytical and design challenges not common to other facets of geotechnical engineering. GeoInsight personnel have been involved with designing and analyzing numerous shoreline structures, including:

• Wharves
• Piers
• Boat moorings
• Rip-rap embankments, and
• Seawalls for ocean, lake, and river locations.

When we begin a waterfront design project, we incorporate procedures that are compatible with applicable regulatory frameworks, minimize costs and disruption to surrounding sensitive environments, and that emphasize esthetic value compatible with surroundings. GeoInsight also completes local, state, and federal permitting on your behalf that may be required for new construction along waterways and bodies of water.

Water impoundments are most often used for flood control, drinking water sources, hydropower, process water retention, and recreation. GeoInsight’s assessments have included structural stability, seismic safety, and embankment improvements for stability and/or hydraulic benefits. GeoInsight has been involved in both new construction and modifications to existing structures. We will successfully address your design and assessment objectives for projects involving:

• Dams
• Dikes
• Floodwalls
• Waterways
• Spillways
• Outlet culverts
• Natural and geosynthetic filter systems
• Flow barriers
• Erosion controls and armaments
• Toe drains, and
• Monitoring systems.

We can also assist you with (or complete on your behalf):

• Dam inspections
• Dam permits
• Flood elevation certificates
• Emergency Action Plans, and
• Wetland Permits associated with operations and modifications.

Utility installations often require specialized geotechnical investigation techniques to support proper design and preserve your investment. GeoInsight personnel have consulted on utility installations ranging from deep conveyance structures located in congested urban areas, to water crossings, to rail-line or roadway crossings. We are experienced in mapping buried utility networks using geophysics, smoke or dye testing, and physical excavation and identification. We frequently assess the construction and connection of new utilities to new or existing lines or buildings and the corresponding need to reduce stress by using:

• Flexible pipe connections
• Geosynthetics to reinforce the connection zone
• Oversized penetration cut-outs to allow movement, and/or
• Cantilevered support panels at the building interface.

We have provided oversight of many utility installations and are familiar with construction requirements that are specific to pipeline projects. We have also been involved in pipe-jacking, rock removal in trenches, and shoring and bracing associated with utilities installation. We can assist you with the preparation of designs and technical specifications related to utilities.

Many properties, typically in rural areas, are not served by municipal sewer systems. In these cases, domestic and commercial septic wastes are disposed of on-site using subsurface septic systems. These systems consist of a tank (to retain solid matter) and a component that purposefully leaches effluent water into surrounding soils. GeoInsight maintains a library of new technologies that offer you significant design enhancement and/or project life-cycle cost savings, and our staff members have designed and/or evaluated numerous septic systems in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts. GeoInsight’s involvement with septic system design and inspection has included:

• Analyzing ground water mounding below effluent discharge locations
• Performing percolation tests
• Evaluating seasonal high water depth
• Inspecting and evaluating existing systems
• System design and construction verification
• Design of system repairs/upgrades, and
• Designing and overseeing new system instillations.

GeoInsight has been called upon to provide expert witness testimony and forensic engineering for a variety of projects. Click here to learn more about our expert witness services.