AACE – GPR Project @ the old Okeechobee Court House

When the Andersen Andre Consulting Engineers, Inc. of Port St. Lucie, FL needed to determine the presence of reinforcing steel in existing columns prior to continuing the renovation of the Okeechobee Court House they contacted GPRS, Inc of Orlando, FL.  AACE was on the Okeechobee project and needed to determine the placement of reinforcing steel in the columns so they could adjust their building/renovation designs.  Ground Penetrating Radar Systems, Inc. has used their equipment to perform similar surveys with great success and was confident they would be able to provide the results AACE was looking for. 

In this picture Chris is scanning the side of a column covered with a thin layer of stucco.  Chris is double checking his marks to ensure accuracy.

On site GPRS surveyed 8 different columns to confirm the findings over a large sample group.  They made field markings of the findings and relayed the information to the site contacts for AACE and the architect.  GPRS was also able to provide “approximate” bar sizes.  Additionally, a report of the findings was provided for AACE records.  Ground penetrating radar is a great tool for determining the presence of reinforcing steel in columns because of the equipments portability and ease of use.  These pieces of information were critical to project moving forward.  Overall the project was a success and the AACE was highly satisfied with the information and data ground penetrating radar was able to provide on their project.

Again, Chris is scanning the outside of a column to locate the reinforcing steel.

Chris Moore runs GPRS operations in the South Eastern United States.  He is based in Orlando, FL and he can be reached at (321)331.2127 or by email at chris.moore@gp-radar.com. Concrete scanning and surveying is a common application performed by the GPR technicians at GPRS.