Platform on civil engineering, underground infrastructure, energy, construction equipment & construction machinery
Geosonda is a geotechnical consulting firm that focuses on soil drilling and soil probing. Most clients come in with building plans and ask about soil composition. When is it safe to build and when is it not? That's exactly what Geosonda investigates.
You don't know if you can build somewhere safely until you know what the ground looks like. Director Aad van der Burg: "The only way to find out is with a sounding. Think, for example, of building next to a dike: you really have to be sure that the dike will remain stable after digging."
Not surprisingly, probing is Geosonda's main activity. "Especially for residential construction, it is crucial. We measure the resistance of the soil with which we make an indication of the type of soil. As a result, you immediately know what the hardness of the soil is, something you have to incorporate into the building plan."
Surely the highlight from 2022 was the acquisition of the company GeoSupporting. "They specialized in indoor probing and we are very happy to have brought that knowledge and experience in-house. We already offered that ourselves, but with these specialists in house it goes even faster."
Indoor probing is necessary for foundation repair or when a building gets a basement or additional floor, for example. Those modifications can affect the foundation, and you need to know what kind of effects they will have. For businesses, it's good to know if new heavy machinery can be placed on the current foundation.
Geosonda also commissioned a new lab this year. "Good soil testing consists of probing, drilling and lab testing," according to Van der Burg. "You have to compare those three results side by side to get the best result. We now have all three facets in-house, which makes it much easier."
Setting up and commissioning the lab was not too bad, according to Van der Burg. "New technology can present challenges, of course, but we started small on purpose to accommodate everything. In the future, we want to expand the lab so we can do even more research."
Geosonda purchased the lab to expand toward the infrastructure sector. "We are now mainly active in the construction market, think pile driving. But the infrastructure sector also benefits tremendously from soil testing, so we see great opportunities there for the future."
Combined with the wide range of machinery Geosonda has at its disposal, Van der Burg believes the company can certainly help the industry. "When I look at what we all do for clients, I always find it funny. We do soil surveys for high-rise projects in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, those huge flats. But we also do surveys for traffic signs and even tombstones. Broader is almost impossible!"
