Accurate geotechnical exploration conducted by competent personnel with well-maintained and properly calibrated equipment is crucial for collecting reliable information, enabling our geotechnical engineers to develop practical and cost-effective foundations and site work design recommendations to the specific site characteristics. Accurate field data also aids to identify risks such as unstable soils, groundwater issues, or geological hazards prior to final project design and construction. 

Subsurface Exploration Goals: Accurately identifying various changes in soil strata and rock profiles to identify below ground problems such as organic deposits, uncontrolled fills, high plasticity soils, high groundwater, environmental contamination, and natural or manmade hazards such as karst and underground mines is essential for good geotechnical design solutions. Obtaining reliable subsurface information is both an art and a science that our drilling crews have mastered. 

Internal Quality Management Process: To control quality and meet our clients’ often demanding schedules, BHATE owns and operates our own drilling fleet. We have both truck mounted and adverse train drilling rigs, support trucks, trailers, water tanks, off road moving mats, and low clearance drills for limited height and indoor work. 

Drilling Expertise and Capability

• Drilling department staff includes professional geologists and tenured staff registered in Alabama and Mississippi, and supported by multiple drilling rigs and tools
• Auger, rotary wash, air drilling, direct push, and cone penetration testing methods with truck, all terrain, and skid mounted rigs. Low headroom drilling capability 
• Soil sampling and in-site testing by Standard Penetration Test, pitcher tube sampler, continuous soil core, Shelby tubes and dilatometer testing
• Environmental drilling designed to meet regulatory and client’s project needs
• Diamond core drilling with nominal 2-, 3.5-, and 4-inch diameter rock samples by wireline methods. Exploration depth capacity of 300 to 800 LF. Angle drilling capacity.
• Installation of groundwater monitoring wells, multiple cased telescope wells, slope inclinometers, and nested or VW piezometers. 
• Hydro-geologic packer and pump testing. 
• Subsurface remediation including LMG, Compaction, and Cap grouting methods 
• All of our personnel have met the training and medical monitoring requirements of OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120. All have completed basic First Aid and CPR courses and have current OSHA/DOT physicals. All of our crewmen are DOT regulated professional drivers and two have CDL “A” licenses. We are experienced and trained to U.S. Coast Guard standards for work in Navigable U.S. Waterways. 

Our Safety Commitment
Protecting our workforce and minimizing property damage is a core priority of our corporate philosophy.  Because of this a “safety first” policy has been integrated into all areas of field operations and is put into practice by all BHATE personnel on a daily basis. We attribute a large portion of our overall success as a company to the significance we place on safety.