Professional service providers leave city to support local community.
Since 2020, Ontario is experiencing a reverse “brain drain,” with professionals leaving the big city to live and work in small towns. Record numbers of workers are taking advantage of lower housing costs and enjoying the benefits of small-town Ontario life as they work from home. Now, geotechnical laboratory technicians and engineers have joined in.
I recently returned to my roots and the hometown I love, setting up PRI Engineering’s geotechnical laboratory in Lindsay, Ontario. This brings high-end, in-house concrete, aggregate, and soil testing to the Kawartha Lakes region, supporting local construction projects.
In this article, I’ll examine how this local geotechnical laboratory testing benefits you and present some of the services we offer.
Geotechnical Laboratory Services in Ontario
Our CCIL certification ensures you get the full-service geotechnical laboratory and big-city quality you expect. Enjoy lower costs and faster turnaround as your samples remain near your projects versus traveling to Peterborough or Toronto. Our same well-rounded engineers and technicians test your soil, concrete, or aggregate in the field and in the lab, so they understand where the samples come from. For example, engineer Arman Yazdani leverages his experience to make recommendations in the field.
Like me, Arman, our geotechnical laboratory manager Vikki Gledhill, and many employees are from Lindsay. We love working to support our small-town Ontario community, and now you can shop local for a geotechnical laboratory services provider.
Geotechnical Laboratory Certifications and Experience
Our geotechnical laboratory completed the rigorous concrete and aggregate, and soil CCIL certifications, becoming the only certified lab in the area. We have used over 50 years of combined engineering consulting and construction experience to complete hundreds of geotechnical laboratory investigations.
“Our versatile team of engineers and technicians draws on a distinct and expansive skill set that’s unusual for a geotechnical engineering company,” says Vikki.
Who Our Geotechnical Laboratory Helps
Our geotechnical laboratory works with both public and private sectors on public works projects, roadway construction, redesign or infrastructure projects, site investigation, testing native soils, analyzing load-bearing soils for small residential to high-rise buildings, and, really, everything that touches the Earth. Our geotechnical laboratory testing benefits Ontario’s construction companies, concrete companies, and contractors, especially local to Kawartha Lakes. If you need concrete laboratory testing, aggregate laboratory testing, laboratory soil testing for construction, or other geotechnical laboratory testing in Ontario, PRI is here to help.
What Our Geotechnical Laboratory Does
PRI Engineering’s geotechnical laboratory analyzes concrete, soil, and aggregate materials to ensure they meet your construction project’s needs.
Laboratory Soil Testing for Construction
The importance of soil testing is to ensure the ground can withstand the weight of your building or infrastructure. To help you build with your local site’s soil in mind, our types of soil testing include particle size analysis to classify soil and determine drainage, using laboratory soil testing methods such as sedimentation analysis and sieve and sedimentation techniques. Determining liquid limit and plasticity helps you know how much the soil will change shape and how much liquid it holds. As well, moisture density tests determine soil compaction. This soil lab testing helps you ensure your construction project is safe, stable, and long-lasting.
Laboratory Concrete Testing
The importance of concrete testing in Ontario is to ensure it meets provincial quality standards and is the consistency you need for your construction project, despite variability in materials and air content. To ensure you are using consistent quality concrete, our types of concrete tests include common field testing and compression testing.
How is concrete testing performed? In a concrete laboratory test, we apply compressive axial load to prepared and cured concrete samples until they fail, determining if it meets the strength you need for your project’s success.
Aggregate Laboratory Testing
Testing aggregates ensures your construction materials have the strength, durability, shape, and size you need. Our aggregate test list includes dry aggregate preparation to determine physical constraints, washing mineral aggregates finer than 75um sieve, sieve analysis, and determining percent crushed, percent flat and elongated, and amount of asphalt-coated particles in coarse aggregate. The impact test of aggregate measures sudden shock resistance and the crushing test of aggregate measures gradual compressive load resistance, ensuring you get the pavement quality you need.
Geotechnical Laboratory Testing Equipment and Procedures
Our full-service geotechnical laboratory testing equipment includes laboratory soil testing equipment, concrete laboratory testing equipment, and aggregate testing equipment: a concrete compressive machine, coarse and fine aggregate sieve shakers, sample splitters, concrete grinders for preparation, drying ovens, scales, and molds, and hammers to determine standard Proctor dry density.
Our geotechnical laboratory soil testing procedures, and aggregate and concrete testing procedures, start with you sending a sample or inviting us to sample at your construction site. We track every sample’s chain of custody throughout. Our geotechnical laboratory can store your samples for a project-specific time or dispose of them when you get your results. You receive a full report of our findings so you can see if the samples meet your quality standards.
How to Get Geotechnical Laboratory Testing Services in Ontario
Our local laboratory technicians and engineers help move your construction project forward with a wide range of on-site and in-house soil laboratory testing, aggregate laboratory testing, and concrete laboratory testing in Ontario. You benefit from quicker turnaround and cost-savings while shopping locally and supporting your Kawartha Lakes community.
To learn more about how PRI Engineering’s geotechnical laboratory services help ensure your construction project stands on a firm foundation, contact the head of the laboratory, Vikki Gledhill.
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