When the Friendly Plumber of Tampa, FL needed to saw cut a trench into an existing concrete slab on grade without hitting any electrical conduits or utilities they contacted GPRS, Inc of Orlando, FL.  A new electrical conduit needed to be run to the cash register station of a new retail store in a shopping plaza in Tampa, FL. 

The friendly plumber was contracted to perform the saw cutting and they decided to contact Ground Penetrating Radar Systems to make sure they did not strike/hit any utilities that might be in contact with the bottom of the concrete.  This is a great application for GPR because the technology not only allows us to pin point the exact location of potential conduits and utilities but also provides an approximate depth to the top of the pipe located.  Radar provides that depth which in turn lets the concrete cutting company know where they need to raise or lower their saw blades to avoid costly and dangerous utility strikes. Also, being that this location was an active shopping center ground penetrating radar was the proper technology because there are no harmful effects emitted from the radar unit.

On site GPRS was able to locate two conduits that were streaking through the saw cutting path just below the concrete.  The conduits were mapped out on the surface of the concrete and the results were reviewed in the field.  GPRS was also able to determine if the conduits contained “live” electrical power or not.  This was accomplished using an RD-7000 (radio detection unit).  The mark outs and “live” power demarcations were extremely helpful prior to the saw cutting.  All in all the scan was a success and The Friendly Plumber was able to cut the concrete without concern of hitting any electrical conduits or utilities.  This certainly saved them from the costly expense to repair a severed electrical conduit or broken utility pipe.

In this picture Chris Moore runs the
GPR unit to locate any electrical
conduits that may be running
just below the concrete.

This is another picture of Chris
attempting to locate electrical
conduits beneath the concrete.