Geotechnical Services
It’s what’s underneath that matters
Understanding underground conditions and how your facility might be affected is important for project reliability, sustainability, and resiliency. Our collective staff experience includes construction of a wide variety of facilities from buildings, airports, bridges, tanks, pipelines, and landfills, to waterfront structures and marine facilities.
Our geotechnical services can help you identify opportunities and manage uncertainties and risks related to soil, groundwater, and bedrock. Uncertainties are often associated with construction costs such as bedrock excavation, unsuitable soil removal, and foundation type options, and with service life performance such as maintenance and repair needs of buildings, roads, pipelines, machines, runways, and marine structures.
Some Geotechnical Engineering Services We Provide:
- Foundation & Site Investigations
- Embankment & Preload Analyses
- Slope Stability / Landslides Evaluations
- Rock Anchor Design Criteria & Testing
- Selection of Deep Foundations
- Well & Borehole Video Surveys
- Site Selection Assistance
- Gravel and Quarry Pits
- Infiltration Testing
Materials Testing Services
A successful project starts from the ground up
Our field and laboratory services are essential to your project’s quality. We can help you in design and selection of materials, and testing construction materials during installation to ensure they are suitable for your project. We specialize in testing and inspection of soils, fresh and hardened concrete, asphaltic concrete, structural masonry and steel. Our technologists participate in NETTCP, NICET, ICC, PCI and ACI certification programs. We have the only IFC Premier Firestop certified inspector located in the states of Maine and New Hampshire.
In the Field
Field services before, during or after construction include:
- Density testing of soils and pavement materials
- Concrete composition analysis (air content, strength, unit weight, and temperature)
- Pile load testing
- Proof and performance testing of ground anchors
- Vibration monitoring, and evaluation of control blasting measures
- Crane platform plate load tests
We are pre-qualified by the Maine Department of Transportation in the following areas:
- Highway Inspection, Construction Management, and Support Services
- Bridge Construction Inspection, Construction Management, and Support
- Aviation Facilities Inspection
- Building Inspection
- Fabrication Inspection
- Materials Testing/Inspection
- Geotechnical Construction Inspection
In the Laboratory
We maintain our own AASHTO Resource and CCRL certified testing laboratory for testing soils, rock, aggregate, concrete, masonry, and asphalt. We can also help establish construction specifications for the related areas based on our test results and analysis.
We are committed to continuous professional development and technical training in our respective practice areas and understanding the issues of our clients and community. Our professional staff is consistently trained and certified and has developed an extensive working knowledge utilizing the Code standards in Compliance Testing and Inspections and the development of Construction Specifications.
Some of the 40+ laboratory tests we provide are:
- Compressive and tensile strength of concrete, mortar, and grout cylinders
- Low density controlled low strength concrete
- Marshall flow, stability, and component percentages of asphaltic concrete
- Moisture-density relationships (standard and modified Proctor)
- California Bearing Ratio
- Sieve analysis
- Atterberg Limits
- Permeability
- Soil Consolidation Tests
- Specific gravity, absorption, freeze-thaw, and sulfate soundness
- Theoretical maximum density
Code Compliance
- International Building Code
- Department of Defense Unified Facilities Criteria
- American Concrete Institute Building Code
- Concrete Reinforcing Steel-Institute Standard
- Portland Cement Association Masonry Handbook
- American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
- American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
- Maine State Building Code
- New Hampshire State Building Code
- Massachusetts State Building Code
- Rhode Island State Building Code
- Vermont Fire & Building Safety Code
Construction Special Inspections
Structural Compliance Inspections
Our company can provide structural compliance inspections to verify that the structural components of your project are constructed in accordance with the project plans and specifications.
- Standard reinforced cast-in-place concrete
- Pre-stressed and post-tension concrete structures
- Reinforced masonry
- Light- and heavy-gauge structural steel construction materials
- Fireproofing of structural components (SFRM & Firestop)
- Portland cement concrete inspection
- Portland cement concrete plant monitoring
- Hot mix asphalt inspection
- Hot mix asphalt plant inspection
- Relative Humidity Testing
- Floor Flatness Testing
Construction Observation
Construction observation helps verify that projects are constructed as the designer intended and documents the work, materials, construction practices, and as-built conditions that testing alone cannot provide.
- Earth fill placement and compaction
- Lightweight fills (geofoam, cellular concrete, stone)
- Rock fill placement and compaction
- Mechanically stabilized earth walls and slopes
- Boulder retaining walls
- Soil and rock anchor installations
- Pile driving
- Compaction test strips
- Settlement and vibration monitoring
- Slope inclinometers installation and monitoring
- Stone mattresses and culverts
Environmental Consulting
Sustainable Solutions
Beneficial development that includes protection of environmental resources and human health is the foundation of low impact and sustainable development. We offer essential services to help you understand your site’s opportunities or challenges, and manage risks.
Staff environmental experts provide monitoring services regarding environmental quality protection. For numerous projects – such as wetland replication, wastewater disposal, or construction in sensitive areas – observation and analysis are essential to ensure consistency with environmental protection requirements and may be required for groundwater discharge and other required permits.
Environmental Consulting Services Include:
- Environmental Site Assessments (ESA I, ESA II)
- Environmental Transaction Screens (ETS)
- Subsurface Wastewater Disposal
- Irrigation & Groundwater Supply
- Groundwater Monitoring
Industries Served
W. Gillespie and Associates provides professional services for wide variety of clients and markets. We are committed to assist you – owners, developers, designers, and contractors – in identifying and managing your project’s uncertainties. We’ll help reduce the potential for defects, delays and unanticipated costs, and help you deliver projects of higher quality, better value and less risk.
Our multi-discipline team can be advantageous during all phases of your project. R. W. Gillespie’s Geotechnical Services include site and foundation evaluations that are important for your project’s reliability and service life performance.
Geohydrology and Environmental Consulting Services can help improve the beneficial development and protection of natural resources. Our Materials Testing and Special Inspections group provides essential field and laboratory services for assuring and documenting project quality during design and construction phases.
Aviation
Runways, taxiways, airport parking lots and structures all have their own design requirements and site challenges. We’ll work closely with your design team to identify site conditions and make recommendations, and with your construction team to provide quality assurance by conducting field observations and laboratory tests.
Commercial/Retail
Whether you’re developing new commercial/retail sites or renovating an existing site, R. W. Gillespie & Associates can meet your geotechnical engineering, environmental consulting, and construction materials testing and building code special inspection needs. We have worked on projects ranging from individual commercial /office buildings to entire shopping centers and industrial parks.
Education
Our educational clients run the gamut from elementary schools to public and private universities and colleges. Give us a call if you are considering new development, renovations or expansion of classrooms, dormitories, athletic fields, administrative offices, or maintenance facilities. We can be an integral part of your site selection, design and construction team.
Energy
Resilient and sustainable energy infrastructure is critical to our communities and region. Our experience includes a wide-range of energy related projects including power generation, transmission, and distribution projects for fossil, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, and wind generation, natural gas pipelines, high-voltage transmission line moment structures, and utility substations and compressor stations.
Government
In our commitment to improving the quality of life in our communities, R.W. Gillespie & Associates provides technical services to local cities and towns, state and federal agencies, and the Department of Defense. Our governmental projects are as varied as the organizations and agencies we serve – aviation and naval facilities; fire and police stations; salt sheds; drinking water supply, treatment and distribution facilities; recreation facilities and parks; and military training facilities.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is important for a community’s public health and economy. It also conveys the community’s public image. Maintaining welcoming, sustainable and safe infrastructure can be a particular challenge for a community. From major highways to clean water, for major and minor roads, bridges, and sidewalk and trail construction, we can provide geotechnical engineering, environmental, and construction material testing services for both the private and public sector.
Medical
If you are considering expanding to meet your medical facility’s growth, our considerable experience would be an asset to your professional team during site selection, planning, design and construction. Our experience includes hospitals, back office and outpatient facilities, urgent care centers, treatment clinics, and parking garages.
Mining
W. Gillespie & Associates provides services for gravel pits, borrow pits and quarries that include but are not limited to: soil and rock investigation, material quality assessments, slope stability/landslide evaluations, groundwater testing and monitoring, permitting, vibration monitoring, and construction observations.
Telecommunications
From self-supporting to guyed towers on numerous telecommunication projects, we’ve helped our clients manage their development and construction costs, reduce their risk, and improve their project’s reliability. (Tower photos courtesy of Industrial Communications.)
