Ground Penetrating Radar contractor in Los Angeles area

http://www.cardno.com/en-us/MarketsandServices/Pages/Subsurface-Utility-Engineering.aspx
Cardno has a large SUE sector of their company and they are darn near everywhere.

Peter,

California is one of two states that licenses Professional Geophysicists (Texas being the other). BPELSG held a joint Technical Advisory Committee meeting about one year ago attended by the Land Surveyor TAC, the Civil Engineer TAC, and The Geologist / Geophysicist TAC members specifically to address the topic of subsurface utility locating. The Board believes these tasks require licensure as a geophysicist, a civil engineer, a land surveyor, or some combination of those licensees depending on the nature of the specific project requirements.

I encourage you (and anyone else) to read the article included in a recent Board Bulletin found at: http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/pubs/bulletin38.pdf for more information.

You may find yourself in responsible charge of the land surveying associated with the project and you may find yourself operating in an unlicensed manner relative to when a Professional Geophysicist license is required. I would rather you be fully informed ahead of time rather than be subject to discipline after the fact.

If you have any questions or concerns, we are more than happy to help you. Feel free to email me at ric.moore@dca.ca.gov

Our company does this work. We have great references. You can check our website: www.pclocators.com We have worked with Psomas before and other reputable companies. Have a great weekend. Quote@pclocators.com we love to partner of RFP's

Maybe by that same reasoning I'll need to hire a geophysicstypedude next time I'm thinking about pulling the old metal detector out.????

ha ha, that was actually brought up during the joint TAC meeting. No, surveyors are fine using whatever tools they use to find their monuments.

Ric,
I also use my metal detector for utility locations. Mine has leads for hooking up to pipe and tracer wire.

Is BPELSG rulemaking on subsurface location technology specific? For instance I've used companies that utilize non-destructive pothole techniques which are achieving the same end result work product as GPR for utility locates.

Another question which I apologize for my ignorance. Does GPR really require more than a technician level education to operate and get correct results? Does the technology in the equipment perform the analysis and interpretation of the investigation, or does it take a phd to decipher?

I suppose this may be the same arguement we have with gps in that the coordinate coming out of the box does not mean its the true corner. Maybe if Javad (or Mr. Silver) comes out with a little box that all the bells and whistles sound off when it verifies the authenticity of the monument, then we can compare apples to oranges as to whether the operation of advanced technologies such as GPR (or Schonstedt for that matter).

> Ric,
> I also use my metal detector for utility locations. Mine has leads for hooking up to pipe and tracer wire.
>
> Is BPELSG rulemaking on subsurface location technology specific? For instance I've used companies that utilize non-destructive pothole techniques which are achieving the same end result work product as GPR for utility locates.
>
> Another question which I apologize for my ignorance. Does GPR really require more than a technician level education to operate and get correct results? Does the technology in the equipment perform the analysis and interpretation of the investigation, or does it take a phd to decipher?
>
> I suppose this may be the same arguement we have with gps in that the coordinate coming out of the box does not mean its the true corner. Maybe if Javad (or Mr. Silver) comes out with a little box that all the bells and whistles sound off when it verifies the authenticity of the monument, then we can compare apples to oranges as to whether the operation of advanced technologies such as GPR (or Schonstedt for that matter).

I can answer your questions to the extent of my personal knowledge on the subject as I am definitely not an expert on the subject. The TAC's met jointly to discuss a publication by ASCE on Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) and whether SUE was "engineering in California" as declared by ASCE or not. So, yes the discussion did involve topics such as utility locates using techniques other than potholing.

I initially approached the subject similar to what you have surmised (i.e., same as the use of GPS) and realized a couple of important differences. Licensing as a Geophysicist requires a degree in that field (so does the Geologist license) while the engineering and surveying licenses do not in California. I also noticed that interpretation of the data gathered from the equipment is discussed in the definitions in law. See the geologist / geophysicist statutes and regulations here:

http://www.bpelsg.ca.gov/laws/index.shtml

Thanks Ric,
I'll dig into this some more shortly. Very interesting stuff.