Southern Radar Imaging was recently contacted by the Alabama Department of Transportation concerning a deteriorating bridge deck. Build in 1949, the Elkmont, Alabama bridge is in need of repairs and in order for the Alabama DOT to get a better understanding of where the repairs will be most needed, project manager Matthew Willbanks of SRI was called in to perform a thorough bridge scan.

Mr. Willbanks performed the scan and bridge assessment to get an idea of how much of the bridge’s concrete had been delaminated over the years. Southern Radar Imaging performed the scan in about two days and provided Alabama Department of Transportation manager Sean Butler with imaging scans and a full assessment report in about 3 business days.

 

Based on Southern Radar Imaging’s scan, a whole deck replacement of the bridge is possible but the repairs will more likely entail a partial deck removal, removing the bad concrete, and laying down an overlay.

Sean Butler of the AL DOT stated he was very happy with the results,

“I think Southern Radar Imaging is highly professional. They provided us with everything we needed and got the job done quickly…for what we had, if the situation arose again we would definitely use SRI again in the future.”

To learn more about Southern Radar's services or to get in touch, feel free to contact them via their website or call 256-232-7267

The Bridge Street Town Centre in Huntsvillie, Alabama is a multi-million dollar, mixed-use lifestyle development that’s to be the hottest shopping center to be constructed in recent years. The new shopping center boasts over 70 upscale retailers and restaurants, including the 210-room Westin Huntsville hotel which includes 74 residential luxury condos. The property will also contain a new fourteen screen Monaco theater and a six-story office building. Aesthetic amenities such as a 10 acre lake with water craft rentals and green open park spaces are all set for a completion date around March of 2008.

A 550,000 square foot development project is no small matter and every structural detail must be inspected to preserve integrity for years to come. The Bridge Street Town Centre and the general contractors involved with the project needed the professional and expert assistance of the Southern Radar Imaging team (Kevin Jones, Matthew and Jason Willbanks) to perform radar imaging scans on the parking deck, restaurants, and Westin hotel. Southern Radar Imaging’s task was to locate all the post tension cables embedded within the concrete slabs of the development. The general contractors on the job had to run plumbing, electrical wiring, and fire safety sprinkler systems through the concrete slabs but had to be careful not the sever the tension cables to preserve the development’s foundation.

Southern Radar Imaging was called in to map all the post tension cables helping to guide the general contractors with various conduit installations. SRI used a structure scan ground penetrating radar system with a 1500 MHz antenna to locate the cables which was the same system they successfully used on the Snow Shoe project in West Virginia.

Southern Radar Imaging’s Project Manager Matthew Willbanks states,

“we saved them a lot of time and money so everybody was happy with the project. We were called out several times by various contractors to perform scans on the site. We pretty much worked for every contractor involved with the project… throughout the project the need would arise to be on site as soon as possible and we would always arrive within 24 hours.”

Scanning a new development to preserve structural integrity is a time and money-saving preventative must. The Southern Radar Imaging team always seems to surpass expectations completing projects quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

Tennessee Valley Authority is the nation’s largest public power company. TVA had started a project to install a new oil and water separating system within their Wheeler Dam plant in Northern Alabama . In order to install the pipe hangers inside the hydro-electric facility, holes were drilled into the concrete about an inch in diameter near the existing pipe gallery. While drilling, TVA would often accidentally hit the rebar embedded within the concrete. Puncturing the rebar could compromise the structural integrity of the facility and this had to be avoided. TVA called-in Southern Radar Imaging to help locate the embedded rebar and guide the drilling.

Southern Radar Imaging received the call for the job on Wednesday, September 26^th. They were on the job the very next day and completed work that Friday. Southern Radar Imaging used the radar detection assistance of an SRI 3000, 1500 MHz antenna which they pulled across the concrete walls to locate the precise location of the rebar. Southern Radar Imaging’s efforts minimized the pipe gallery’s installation time by taking the guesswork out of the drilling process.

For TVA this was a time sensitive project that was expedited with the help of Southern Radar Imaging. TVA needed to get this completed before the end of the fiscal year and SRI delivered thanks to SRI’s own Mattew Wilbanks and Kevin Jones.

Southern Radar Imaging, A ground penetrating radar and inclusion location service out of Athens, Alabama was recently hired by major condo developer Intrawest Placemaking. Intrawest has recently built new condo developments on the summit of Snow Shoe Mountain in Snow Shoe, West Virginia. Intrawest was in immediate need of radar detection services to locate rebar and conduit in the concrete slab of their newly constructed park structure.

Matthew Willbanks, business developer and project manager for Southern Radar Imaging was contacted by the principal engineer of the Snow Shoe project. The engineer needed the services of Southern Radar Imaging for an immediate survey. Matthew states…

“It was kind of hectic. I went from finding out about the job on a Wednesday morning, talked to the project manager from Snow Shoe, flew up Wednesday evening to look at the job and had a proposal to them by Thursday. We went to work for them on Monday. They needed the work fast and we got it to them.”

The Intrawest job consisted of scanning 3500 square feet of twelve inch concrete slab using a 1500 MHz indoor antennae. Intrawest Placemaking needed to avoid disturbing the previously set inclusions to maintain the structural integrity of their new development when making alterations to the concrete slab. Southern Radar Imaging scanned the slab and found rebar or conduit inclusions. SRI then marked the concrete in real-time. SRI completed the first phase in 18 days, three days ahead of the set completion date.

“Intrawest was very happy with the work we performed in phase one and we’ll be coming back to Snow Shoe in early 2008 to complete phase two.”

Southern Radar Imaging has been in business since May of 2006 and has been rapidly growing. SRI performs indoor and outdoor inclusion location services, bridge assessments, locating underground utilities, archaeological projects, and natural 3D geology imaging.

When Roger Shireman, Project Specialist first heard about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis , a couple of things came to his mind.

"I was in shock that such a big bridge collapsed and had remorse for the victims," said Shireman, project specialist for Southern Radar Imaging.

The Athens-based company provides bridge inspection services that go below the surface by using radar technology to detect cracks and other deterioration in bridges. Southern Radar also can find other things invisible to the naked eye, such as buried utilities and human remains.

Kenneth Schaus, company founder and president, said he began looking for technology that could see inside concrete while working as a nuclear assurance engineer at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant.

"There were thousands of holes (in the concrete) during the Unit 1 restart," Schaus said.

He found a New Hampshire company that provided ground penetrating radar, or GPR, technology, which provides internal inspection of concrete without requiring X-ray technology, which can shut down other work nearby.

"I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread," Schaus said. "What caught my eye was, you can see the infrastructure of this country just deteriorating. I believed (the technology) had potential.

"This is a process that I thought was timely, I thought could be useful."

That was before the Aug. 1 bridge collapse in Minneapolis . Schaus founded Southern Radar last August, pulling Shireman, whom he worked with at Browns Ferry, out of retirement.

Here's how the technology works: An antenna is mounted on a three-wheel buggy that is pushed across the bridge, analyzing at 2-foot intervals. The device collects data that are interpreted by specialty software to show deteriorated areas.

Schaus said after the collapse he contacted the Minnesota Department of Transportation and offered to help analyze an adjacent bridge that officials were concerned about, but he hasn't gotten a response.

With recent reports showing that more than 25 percent of the nation's bridges need major repairs or maintenance, Schaus knows there's plenty of work to be done.

"The state can't go out and do it because it's expensive," he said.

Southern Radar has four full-time and two part-time employees. Ken Schaus is President, Matthew Wilbanks is Project Manager, and Johnny McCulley is Office Manager.

The company recently got a contract to analyze a bridge in Selma. Most of the business's work has been in Alabama , but Southern Radar also has been called to Nashville, North Carolina and West Virginia. Other states have contacted the company, showing an interest in using GPR to survey bridges.

"We are working hand-in-hand with the state to resolve the issues with the bridges, to ensure that the bridges are safe," Schaus said.

- Huntsvillie Times