Metairie Headquarters
When Eustis Engineering opened its first office in Vicksburg, Mississippi, back in the 1940s, it housed its entire operation in less than 500 square feet of space. Sixty years later, our personnel and equipment occupy more than 35,000 square feet of space in our three locations.
Eustis Engineering is the oldest and largest geotechnical engineering firm in southeastern Louisiana. From a two-man office to more than 100 individuals, the firm has grown to house accounting, administrative, drilling, engineering, laboratory, and CQC & materials testing departments. These departments work together to provide our clients with the quality work desired in a cost efficient and timely manner.
Eustis Engineering currently operates a branch office in Lafayette, Louisiana, and a sister company, Eustis Engineering Company Inc. of Mississippi, in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Drilling
Gulfport Office
Eustis Engineering's drilling department drills soil borings and performs sampling operations for our client's projects in all environments. Our personnel have the capability and experience to provide these services from trucks, barges, pontoons, and swamp or marsh equipment.
Our Failing rigs use wet rotary type drilling technology to obtain quality 3 and 5-in. diameter undisturbed borings. Our Diedrich hollow stem rigs are generally used in the performance of environmental drilling services. Our environmental soil probe is mounted to the rear of this equipment to obtain small diameter samples of water and soil at relatively shallow depths.
Eustis Engineering also operates a Diedrich all-terrain carrier. This is a four-wheel carrier with 50" x 25" flotation tires. The carrier is designed to support a Diedrich D-50 wet rotary drill rig. The ATC has hydrostatic drive technology and is designed to traverse soft ground surface, steep slopes, and wooded areas.
We own and operate a Geonor downhole in situ vane shear testing machine. The vane shear measures in situ soil shear strengths. It is portable and can be operated over land, marsh, swamp, and in water.
We also have hand augers to obtain disturbed samples at various depths for use in classification and stratification of soil deposits. This equipment can be used in association with handheld piston samplers to obtain small diameter undisturbed samples.
Laboratory
Lafayette Office
Consolidometers, permeameters, digital indicators, pressure transducers....we have them all. Our laboratory is constantly evolving with the purchase of new equipment on a yearly basis. Whenever possible, this equipment is computerized and connected to data acquisition systems. This process allows for maximum efficiency in testing, reduces potential errors, and produces a quality laboratory report when required. Technical testing common to our laboratory includes ASTM, ACI, LaDOTD, AASHTO, FAA, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers procedures.
We emphasize training and technical expertise to our laboratory technicians. Our senior personnel have extensive experience in the performance of a vast array of soil mechanics laboratory tests. These resources are used to do in-house training of personnel. Our personnel attend short courses in laboratory testing procedures. In addition to these courses, all of our laboratory technicians have earned certifications with the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET) in the area of geotechnical engineering technology and in the subfields of construction, exploration, generalist, and laboratory.
In our effort to ensure the quality of our laboratory and materials testing, our programs are regularly inspected by outside agencies. The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) inspected our facilities and quality control in 1994, 1996, and 1998. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspected our services in 1995, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2008. The AMRL Group of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials inspected our testing programs in 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, and 2009. The CCRL Group of AASHTO inspected our facilities and programs in 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2009.
Both our Metairie and Gulfport laboratories are accredited with the AASHTO Materials Reference Laboratory in the areas of soil, aggregate, and Portland Cement Concrete. Our Metairie laboratory is also accredited in the area of hot mix asphalt.
Eustis Engineering's laboratory has been inspected and accredited for the quality system requirements of ASTM D 3666, ASTM D 3740, and AASHTO R 18. Compliance with these quality system specifications may be considered equivalent to compliance with those of ASTM E 329.
Engineering and Advanced Technology
Our staff consists of 11 professional engineers registered in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas. Our engineering staff is complemented by four engineering interns, four engineering graduates, three engineering technicians, and one geologist. Our numbers allow diversification and appointment of teams to meet our commitments on projects in a timely and professional manner.
Our engineering staff has extensive experience in a wide range of projects including, but not limited to, office buildings, sports complexes, industrial facilities, docks, roads and bridges, drainage structures, levees, and others.
We have developed expertise in the prediction of pile load capacities for various types of piles including driven, augercast, and shafts. Our range of experience varies from small treated piles with 5-ton design loads to open end steel pipe piles with design loads on the order of 200 to 500 tons.
Eustis Engineering's Pile Driving Analyzer® has become invaluable during the driving of test piles and job piles. This equipment monitors such factors as compressive and tensile stresses, energy attenuation, dynamic pile capacity, pile integrity, pile alignment, bending stress during driving, and many other factors. We have used dynamic pile technology on hundreds of projects to economically benefit our clients prior to final design and during construction operations. Eustis Engineering also maintains DPT certification with Pile Dynamics, Inc.
Eustis Engineering also owns and operates a Cross-Hole Analyzer to determine the quality of concrete between pairs of tubes preinstalled in drilled shafts. A transmitter, lowered down one tube, sends a high frequency signal that is sensed by the receiver in another. The sensors are then moved along the shaft and the process repeated until the entire shaft length is scanned. Defects in the pile are easy to recognize. They appear as weak signals in th signal plot, missing signals in the traditional plot, delayed arrivals in the arrival time plot, and signals with low energy.
The Pile Integrity Tester operated by Eustis Engineering performs low strain integrity testing. This equipment may be used to test concrete piles, drilled shafts, augercast piles, concrete filled pipe piles, and, on occasion, timber piles. The test can be easily and rapidly performed making it economically feasible to test every pile on site. The PIT can detect the presence and location of potentially dangerous defects such as cracks, necking, soil inclusions, or voids, and can determine pile length. Data can be evaluated in the field or transferred to a computer for further processing.
Construction Materials Testing
Whether 20 feet down in an excavation or 20 stories up in a high rise, Eustis Engineering's CQC technicians are there providing the inspection services needed on individual projects.
We currently have approximately 30 technicians on staff to provide these services on a daily basis. These services encompass the areas of soils, piling, asphalt, concrete, steel, and others.
Soils testing in the field is performed by means of density tests (nuclear, sand cone, or balloon method), fill placement inspection, and depth checks. These services are performed by technicians who have attended courses by Troxler or Humboldt in the use of nuclear density devices.
Piling services include the inspection of various types of piles, logging these piles, and performance of pile load tests with calibrated equipment. Load test results are, in turn, interpreted and reported by a registered engineer on our staff.
Asphalt services, performed by our LaDOTD and NICET certified asphalt technicians, include the formulation and review of mix designs, quality control both at the plant and in the field, and materials sampling and testing.
Our realm of concrete inspection includes the formulation and review of mix designs, quality control at the plant and in the field, materials testing and sampling, precast piling inspection, post tension inspection, floor flatness, and mortar and grouts inspection. These services are performed by our ACI, MDOT, and NICET certified technicians.
Steel inspection may include the visual inspection of structural steel at the site or in the shop, steel and pipe coating sampling, post tension and welder certification witnessing, and the performance of ultrasonic and x-ray testing. These services are performed by members of our staff currently certified with AWS and/or ASME.
Other CQC services provided by Eustis Engineering personnel include fireproofing inspection, vibration and acoustical monitoring, paint inspection, roofing inspection, pipeline pressure testing, and sewer infiltration-exfiltration testing. Technicians are cross-trained to maximize their potential use on client projects.
Conclusion
Much has happened at Eustis Engineering since January 1946. We have played a part in offshore structures, interstate highways, airports, colleges and universities, high rise structures, and industrial facilities. Our files, on more than 20,000 projects, are a testimonial to our part in the growth of the southeastern United States.
