Geotechnical Drilling and sampling of soils and bedrock provides information about the formation and stability characteristics vital to the construction industry. By studying these characteristics along with ground water and bedrock mapping it allows the process of construction to be carried out in the best manner with no surprises.
A 2′ split spoon is the most effective method of retrieving a sample of soil, though use of a sand trap is needed in sand formations and shelby tubes are used to extract soft clays with little or no SPT value. When rock coring, an inner tube, seated at the bottom of the drill string is extracted to obtain the core sample needed.
Standard penetration testing (SPT) is done with the use of our automatic hammer, which drives a split spoon or a dynamic cone point(cone penetration testing) into the soil at a certain drop rate and weight. The amount of times driven into the soil within certain measurements provides the data needed to calculate soil strength. Shear tests are done with field veins in soft clays to determine shear strength if low SPT value is shown. These are standard tests in geotechnical drilling. PML Field Services is equipped with all of these tools to sample, on our rigs for any geology we encounter.