As 3 formas mais negligenciadas de evitar custos inesperados

While it may seem that we are in the business of civil engineering… The truth is, we are in the business of saving property owners and managers money. UDS Civils works with businesses across every industry to analyze various facets of their current property and structures to identify weaknesses and faults.  While land surveying and leak detection are commonly utilized, there are a few ways that many are overlooking that could prevent or reduce costs in the future.

An Overhead View Of Hard To Reach Places

Not all properties are accessible by foot. Drone Surveying is the most accurate and precise way to gather vital information about a property — particularly properties with difficult to access areas or large land masses that need to be surveyed quickly. Drone Surveying gives property managers insight that ensure projects are completed the right way the first time. This keeps costs low and projects on schedule.

 An In-Depth Look Within The Walls

It is common to wait to see physical signs of decay in concrete structures before taking action to repair them; however, this is a dangerous and costly approach. In fact, many times there will be little to no signs of decay prior to a structure’s collapse. A Concrete Survey is the only way to gain data about the soundness of a concrete structure and can prevent costly repairs down the road. 

A Test Of Structure In High-Traffic Areas

Railways are designed to withstand lots of pressure, weight, and movement. Despite their sound design, even the best rail-tracks can have service interruptions or worse, long-term down time as a result of poor maintenance. A GPR Ballast Evaluation Survey is the best way to analyze the conditions of a rail-track and determine when and where repairs are needed.

Don’t delay, contact us to find out more

Your Questions Answered: Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

When it comes to your property, it is vital to stay informed and proactive. Doing so can save time and money, while preserving the continuity of your operations. Today, we are answering the most common questions we hear about Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).

What is GPR?

GPR stands for Ground Penetrating Radar. This is a technology that is utilized to get real-time images below ground, revealing pipelines, wires, fire lines, water lines, and utilities that cannot be discoverable with traditional methods.

How Does GPR Work?

GPR is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to penetrate and map the subsurface of the earth. It uses high-frequency radio waves and transmits a signal into the ground. When the waves hits a buried object the receiving antenna records variations in the reflected return signal. GPR can be used in a variety of media, including rock, soil, ice, pavements and structures. It can detect objects, changes in material, and voids and cracks.

Who Should Use GPR?

All property owners can benefit from the use of GPR technology to detect utilities and any other structures that may impede upon existing buildings or plans for future construction. GPR can provide insight, unlike any other utility detection technology, that reveals vital information to save you time and money in the long run.

If you are planning an upcoming construction project, GPR can be especially useful. You will need to know the information about your property that GPR technology can reveal in order to plan and prepare.

The cost of not detecting utilities and pipes beneath the surface of your property can be catastrophic. Constructing a building where the ground is not stable, causing a pipe to burst, or creating costly electrical or communications problems are all possible outcomes when proper utility detection is not completed.

What Are the Benefits of GPR?

Without the need to dig or destruct your property, GPR is one of the safest and least destructive methods for locating utility lines below the surface. This is especially important for those who have existing above ground structures and want to avoid disrupting business continuity or incurring greater costs.

Not only is GPR technology one of the least invasive technologies of its kind, it is also one of the most accurate. Our UDS Civils team is trained and equipped with the knowledge and experience necessary to maximize the capabilities of GPR technology and accurately assess the types and locations of below ground structures and utilities.

Finally, utilizing GPR is a vital preventative measure to reduce future costs. An investment now will allow you to fully understand the complexities of your property and your facilities for years to come. You will prevent accidental damages and reduce the cost of planning future construction projects.

If you are interested in learning more about GPR and how your property could benefit, contact UDS Civils. We would be happy to answer any questions and help you identify the right services for your needs.

Please note we will be closed on 14 December 2018 and will reopen on 14 January 2019.

Thank you to all of our wonderful clients for a great year — we look forward to what 2019 will bring.

Selecting the right team for the job is often the difference between a successful, complete project and one filled with challenges and setbacks. When making decisions for your company, it is always beneficial to take the time to research and select the right civil engineering team for your project. Whether it is for utility detection services, pipeline leak detection, or geotechnical investigations, the right team will lead to the desired outcome and a seamless experience.

1. The Team’s Experience 

One of the first things to look for when finding the right civil engineering team for your project needs is the team’s experience. How long has the company been in business for? What experience do each of the team members have? Identifying this information will provide insight into whether the team has had enough experience to take on challenging projects and complete your project on time, with no errors.

Understanding the importance of experience in civil engineering projects, UDS Civils is highly selective in growing their team and takes pride in hiring only the best engineers across the industry. When UDS Civils works with clients on projects, their team is fully equipped and experienced to take on any challenges or unexpected incidents as they may arise.

2. The Team’s Knowledge 

There are highly knowledgeable and effective teams that have diverse expertise across many sectors of civil engineering. On the other hand, there are teams that are highly specialized and focus on a specific facet of civil engineering to build their knowledge, skills, and expertise. While both may be able to complete the task at hand, you want to identify the best team for your job — a team that can not just finish the job, but finish it on time, error-free, and with a precise attention to detail.

Before working with a new civil engineering company, find out what areas they have expertise in. Do they specialize in the areas your projects require? UDS Civils has several teams with different skills and knowledge — all specialized to meet the specific needs of your project. When you work with UDS Civils, you can have confidence knowing that the team members have in-depth knowledge needed to complete your project perfectly, on time, and handle any complications as they may arise.

3. The Team’s Depth

Within a single team, each member brings its own set of skills and knowledge. When selecting a civil engineering company for your next project, the team’s depth is as an important consideration to make. Do they have a diverse team with broad skills and experiences? Do they have a big enough team to handle a job of your size? Researching the team’s depth before deciding on a team for your project is the best way to ensure that your project will be completed as anticipated, with no unexpected incidents.

We know the right team is important for your business. You want to ensure that the investment you are making into your engineering project is in the right company and right team. Look no further than UDS Civils. Equipped with experience, knowledge, and depth, UDS Civils offers everything a company needs to complete any project ranging from pipeline inspections to land surveying.

5 Common Construction Problems You Can Prevent

When it comes to construction, there are many problems that are foreseeable and preventable with the right knowledge and guidance. Understand some of the most common construction problems, so you can connect with the right resources to ensure your company can avoid the most prevalent challenges in construction.

The Structure is Too Large or Heavy

Often, the ground that the structure is being built on is overlooked when beginning construction. Even if the surface layer is investigated, there may be more to know than at first glance. Understanding the details of the ground where the construction is taking place is vital to determining the right size of the structure and the right building materials to use. Without this information, many construction companies will construct a building that cannot be supported by the ground it is on in the long-term. A Geo-Technical investigation is the best way to understand the ground you are breaking ground on and determine the optimal structure size and weight for the area.

The Ground is Too Unstable

The best way ensure your structure will be unaffected throughout years of continuous use is by preparing for the worst, most unexpected situations. Many times, people forget to consider natural disasters when building new structures. With a Geo-Technical investigation, engineers can determine how a natural disaster would impact the proposed structure and you can account for earthquakes or other disasters before beginning construction.

There Are Hidden Obstructions

Without utility detection services, it is nearly impossible to determine if there are hidden obstructions that would impact the construction of a structure on a particular site. Utility detection is a simple, yet easy way to know if there are any utilities or Telkom Lines where you plan on breaking ground. Prevent costly mistakes down the road by taking the time and investing in utility detection before constructing your new structure.

A Broken or Cracked Pipe

Dealing with the challenges of a broken or cracked pipe are costly and time-consuming. A broken pipe can require invasive repairs, that could halt use of the facilities during repair and impact business continuity. Most broken or cracked pipes are easily preventable by identifying and repairing small leaks immediately. Leak detection services are the best way to detect a leak before it grows into a greater problem. Working with a company, like UDS Civils, that uses a non-invasive leak detection method will reduce costs and down time for your facilities.

Pipeline Blockages

Like a leak, a pipeline blockage is a small issue that when undetected can require major excavations that are extremely costly and time consuming. By working with the right team to conduct a pipeline investigation and detecting the issue early on, you can reduce the impact of a pipeline blockage. Act immediately upon suspicion to work with a skilled team of experts to prevent this common challenge property owners across the continent are facing.

With all of these common construction challenges, the problems are often foreseeable and preventable, but fast action and expertise is required. Consider working with UDS Civils to prevent costly problems on your property.

When there’s a need to identify and assess what’s situated under a concrete surface without defacing it, GPR, short for ground penetrating radar is the choice tool for most civil engineers.

Typically, GPR develops an image of the geophysical structure to be assessed by transmitting radio waves into it, waiting for a reflected energy profile before going on to analyze and then derive a contextual picture. It’s an efficient tool for mapping out utilities (especially those of the non-conductive type) in a project area sequel to construction work. More so, when combined with technologies like EM induction, it’s well and truly capable of deriving a complete schema of entire subsurface utility complexes and ratifying available information.

These features along with its portability, real-time reports/analysis, and more importantly relative safety have made GPR hugely popular. With that popularity came a slew of some GPR related facts some of which were true, others, not so much.

Ground penetrating radar facts

• GPR is as safe as it gets

Unlike conventional means of assaying construction sites that are either grossly invasive (in extension potentially destructive) or based on potentially harmful technologies, underground scanning uses small controlled beams of radio waves, approx. 0.01% that released from everyday mobile phones. The implication of this is that it is safe to operate even with humans nearby and will have no short or long-term effect on the assayed site.

• GPR is cheaper too!

Overall, GPR underground surveys are pocket-friendly, especially when compared to other means of assaying a site. While conventional scanning techniques require due preparation and site clearance (which further escalates costs), GPR can be conducted with relative ease and without the need for displacing site setups and public utilities.

Some misconceptions

• GPR uses X-rays

One widespread myth about GPR underground scanning is that it utilizes X-rays to scan and produce an imagery of structures. This presumption is largely because most people expect devices that scan hard structures to be based on X-ray technology. However, this is not always the case and as we’ve already reiterated, GPR uses another form of electromagnetic waves called radio waves. Radio waves are safer to work with, require less energy and overall produce better results

• Underground scanning machines produce crystal clear images of what’s underneath

What an underground scanning equipment does provide is generalized data about the features located underground. In other words, it can only detect, not identify what structures are buried in the assay site. Determining the structure is the job of an analyst, and this is achieved by using a trained eye to isolate the subtle characterizations of features in the results projected by an underground scanning device.

• GPR is hydrophobic

On the contrary, underground surveys work perfectly well with water, especially if the water is from a freshwater source. Luckily this is the kind that’s present in most municipalities. However, if the water is from a saltwater source, it has the propensity to interfere with the EM waves used by GPR. This is because salt water houses a myriad of minerals and ions.

So there you have it, a brief rundown of the truths and misconceptions about GPR. We do hope it helps you develop a better understanding of its efficiencies and applications in the engineering sector.

Not all utility detection teams are created equal. Do the research to ensure the utility detection team you are working with is the right fit for the project you are working on. It can be challenging to navigate the technical field of utility detection, but this guide is designed to give you the cues you need to identify and select the right utility detection team for your projects.

Qualifications

The first step is to ensure that the utility detection team you are working with has all of the knowledge and qualifications required. Any reputable company will be willing to disclose the qualifications of their team members, so that you can be confident you are working with a team that will be able to execute the job safely and efficiently.

Experience

Next, you will want to explore their experience. Have they worked on projects of your size and scale? What types of projects does the utility detection team typically take on? At UDS Civils, for example, our team has experience working with projects of all types and sizes and can confidently take on utility detection projects of any scale.

Equipment

Even the best and brightest teams will still struggle without the right equipment. Ensure the utility detection team you are working with has the latest detection and surveying technology required to deliver efficient and precise results.

Think ahead and employ professional civil engineering services to protect your organization and your community.

Approach

UDS Civils takes an approach that guarantees the best results by verifying data prior to leaving the project site and uncovering potential issues by working with our off-site office in real time. Find an utility detection team that has an approach that minimizes mistakes and ensures a job well done.

UDS Civils is South Africa’s leading solutions-based civil engineering firm offering services ranging from Water Leak Detection, Land Surveying, and Utility Detection to Geotechnical Investigations, 3D Scanning, and CCTV Pipeline Inspections.

Hiring a professional for Utility Detection services gives you more than just information you need to complete your project, it saves money, lives, and time. The small investment you make into professional Utility Detection services is an investment into protecting your property and projects. Understanding more about what you receive when you invest in Utility Detection services will help you make an informed, smart decision.

Why it is important

Utility Detection services are an investment in a peace of mind, knowing that your project will not face any foreseeable delays or encounter dangerous situations. When utilities are not properly detected, your team could be injured or worse yet, killed when working on a project. If the accident is preventable, it is your duty to ensure your team is equipped to achieve positive outcomes.

Not only are lives on the line, but your investment and time are at stake. If you run into an unexpected utility underground, your project may be delayed and you may have to invest more money to create new plans or add-ons to the originally scheduled work. Keep your projects on schedule and within budget by planning ahead and detecting underground utilities before breaking ground.

With a broader focus, you will see that the impacts of hiring a professional utility detection team extend beyond your own team and projects. Damaging underground utilities could cut access to water or electricity for an entire community, leaving families and children without clean drinking water and power to keep their homes safe.

What you get

When you work with UDS Civils for Utility Detection services, you get everything you need to know that your project will be completed on-time, safely, and within your budget. Our team is equipped with the knowledge and equipment needed to investigate underground utilities accurately and efficiently.

You receive insight on inspection chambers, telegraph poles, Telkom lines, and more. This data is not only clearly marked on your property, but can be kept as record for you to use in the future.

How it works

The process for our Utility Detection services are simple and fast. We send our trained, professional team to your property with the equipment they need. Our team uses total station and GPS surveying, among many other tools to record the data and clearly mark the utilities on the ground.

We use rapid verification of the data before leaving the site to ensure that all of the information we provide you is correct and current. Our on-site team works in conjunction with our off-site office to uncover potential issues. At the end, you not only receive markings on your property, but you also receive the data to keep for future projects and confidence knowing that your projects will be executed flawlessly.

Work with UDS Civils for a professional Utility Detection team that will deliver the information you need to complete your projects in a timely, cost-effective, and safe manner.

Did you know this about Utility Detection?

Working with a professional civil engineering firm, like UDS Civils, has many benefits for properties. Extending beyond your own property, Utility Detection services and preventative services like, Water Loss Management and Water Leak Detection can have significant impacts and benefits to the entire community. When it comes to your organization’s reputation and perception in the community, every community driven effort you make counts.

Benefits of Utility Detection

Did you know that an underground utility line is damaged every 8 minutes? Without taking the time to have a professional utility detection service before digging into the ground, you risk harming yourself, your property, your team, and your community. A professional utility detection team, like UDS Civils, will ensure that you know where pipes, manholes, electrical wires, gas, sewer, telephone, cable lines, and more are located.

With this information, your organization is able to confidently break ground, knowing that it will not cause a community wide power outage or water main break. The risks of not using a utility detection service include the cost of the community impacts, such as families without access to electricity or other area businesses without proper internet and phone communication. The small investment into a utility detection service can help maintain your reputation as a positive contributor to the community.

Benefits of Water Loss Management and Water Leak Detection

Like utility detection, water loss management and water leak detection can have a significant impact beyond your organization and your property itself. Both water loss management and water leak detection are key to conserving the valuable resource of water. When organizations do not manage water loss or stop leaks early, lots of precious water is wasted, water that could have been used for drinking or bathing by families in the community.

Hiring experts in water loss management and water leak detection, like UDS Civils, will ensure that the damages of leaks or water loss will be kept to a minimum. This can prevent larger issues like pipes completely bursting or properties flooding. Pipe breaks and flooding also impact the community by making it difficult to access clean water or damaging others’ properties and livelihoods.

Community Implications

Taking the proper steps to maintain your property is part of your role, not only in managing your organization, but also as a positive contributor to your community. The members of your community value their home and the surrounding neighborhoods and businesses. Continue promoting the value of your organization and property to the community by being responsible in hiring a professional utility detection team and managing water loss and leaks. With this proactive responsibility, you will reduce the risk of negatively harming your property and the community, which could be very costly both financially and to your organization’s reputation.

Think ahead and employ professional civil engineering services to protect your organization and your community.