Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR or georadar) is an essential tool for locating and mapping underground utilities, and testing of structures and pavements.

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GPR can also be successfully applied to a wide range of geological, geotechnical, and environmental tasks, including shallow bedrock profiling, ice thickness measurements, subsurface material characterization, detection of prior excavations and voids, and karst studies. The main advantage of GPR compared to other geophysical techniques is the rapid investigation of vast areas, hence, lower survey costs.

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Frontwave Geophysics operates a wide range of GPR instrument options and antenna frequencies providing optimal resolution and depth of penetration for a particular task.

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The most common applications for GPR include:

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Utility locating:  GPR is most widely used for locating underground utilities, such as pipes, cables, and conduits. It helps prevent accidental damage during excavation and construction projects.

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Underground storage tank (UST) locating: USTs are typically good targets for GPR because of their high reflectivity, size, and relatively shallow depth.

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Concrete inspection: GPR is employed in the inspection of concrete structures to determine the configuration of reinforcement bars, detect voids, and identify subsurface anomalies, such as cracks or delamination.

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Pavement and road inspection: GPR is used for evaluating the condition of pavements and roads by assessing the thickness of asphalt and granular layers, detecting voids, and identifying subsurface defects without the need for extensive core testing.

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Borehole clearance: GPR surveys are conducted before drilling operations to ensure the absence of underground utilities.

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Ice and snow thickness measurements: GPR is employed in glaciology to study the structure of glaciers and ice sheets, in the construction of ice roads to control and monitor the ice thickness, and has many other applications involving imaging of ice and snow.

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Bridge deck assessment: GPR is used to evaluate the condition of bridge decks by detecting the presence of voids, delamination, and corrosion of reinforcing steel without the need for extensive core testing.

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