Earthquake Engineering | Foundation Design | Landslide Investigation | Educational Facilities | Dams & Reservoirs
Roadways & Parking Lots | Pipelines, Sewers and Storm Drains | Construction Observation & Testing

Caltrans Certified Laboratory and Technicians

GEI provides geotechnical and geological services for all phases of civil engineering projects including planning, design, construction and maintenance. Typical projects in which we have extensive experience include roads, streets, bridges, pipelines and storm drains, water and wastewater treatment facilities, commercial, municipal and residential structures and dams and reservoirs.

Our civil and geotechnical engineers specialize in soil mechanics and foundation engineering. Our capabilities include exploration of surface and subsurface conditions through a variety of field techniques including geologic mapping, drilling with hollow-stem and bucket-auger rigs, downhole logging, and seismic surveys. The firm's exploration techniques encompass conventional and state-of-the-art sampling methods as well as geophysical and seismological techniques.

GEI's staff is also familiar with the variety of laboratory tests necessary to properly characterize both soils and pavement materials. Based on field and laboratory tests, we can perform static and dynamic analyses including allowable soil pressures, total and differential settlement, lateral earth pressures, pavement thickness, subsidence and fissure formation, soil collapse potential, uplift pressures, shoring design, slab support, pile capacity, soil liquefaction, seismic response spectra, slope stability, and slope deformation. We are familiar with both rigid and flexible pavement design and development of recommendations regarding site grading. When needed, GEI may establish field laboratories for site investigations or construction projects. These laboratories can be used to determine engineering properties onsite.

To characterize the properties of supporting soils, our engineers review and interpret the results of our field investigation and laboratory testing programs. Our staff provides recommendations for the site preparation and grading necessary for a proposed project. Site development techniques include conventional grading operations and in-situ improvement of existing soils. Conventional grading techniques include removal of unsuitable materials by excavation, selective grading, and import of suitable materials.

GEI's staff is experienced in evaluating seismic risks such as ground rupture, locating active faults and identifying evidence of earthquake shaking effects such as liquefaction, ground lurching, and landsliding as well as in the performance of landslide investigations and providing recommendations for stabilizing potentially unstable slopes.

AutoCAD, gINT and other Computer Services

 

We are experienced in the use of AutoCAD to produce design drawings for dams, detention basins, reservoirs, and other projects of similar magnitude. The firm uses computers and technical information systems to validate and analyze these data and to prepare reports presenting findings and recommendations.

GEI has full computer capabilities for accounting, job database management, project management, and computer-aided drafting. In addition, we utilize a database management program, gINT (Geotechnical INTegrator), to produce laboratory plots, boring logs, cross sections, fence diagrams, and tables based on data collected during field investigations and from laboratory testing.