Services in support of infrastructure projects

Sampling taking using a precusion drill. Photo: Aarno Kotilainen, GTK

Modern societies must invest continually in all sorts of infrastructure: roads, bridges, railroads, waterways, dams, tunnels, pipelines, underground facilities, transportation terminals, waste disposal facilities for solid, hazardous, mining and radioactive materials, water supply and sewer systems and other utilities. Selection of ideal sites and routes, safe construction, provision of adequate amounts of construction materials and policy level land-use decisions thus require versatile geological information. Given the importance of infrastructure to society, an exceptionally high degree of certainty is required when presenting interpretations and recommendations to infrastructure planners and the construction industry.

Experience gained in studies for infrastructure projects has encouraged GTK to refine its traditional geological and geotechnical techniques and also to develop entirely new and more flexible methodologies. In addition to the capabilities outlined above, GTK can apply materials sampling and laboratory studies, remote sensing and airborne geophysical studies and to facilitate understanding the significance of presented data, by various analytical techniques, including numeric modeling.

Ground geophysics

GTK offers a wide range of geophysical field surveys, applicable to assessment of raw materials, and planning of large construction projects and urban development. Detailed information may be obtained concerning bedrock fracturing, natural hazards, groundwater movement, heat generation, depth of regolith and overburden, bedrock topography, radon emission, unknown abandoned structures, military materials. GTK also has solid expertise in deployment of ground penetrating radar (GPR), gravimetrics, seismographs, hydrophones, Slingram, VLF, IP, electrical resistivity tomography and EM wide-band deep sounding equipment, as well as in data reduction and interpretation. To ensure optimum performance of our ground geophysical surveys, GTK field teams work closely with our geophysical instrument and methods development group. Our geophysicists have experience ranging from the Arctic and Antarctic areas to Equatorial Africa.

Marine geology

GTK has years of experience in mapping the seafloor and its mineral resources in the Baltic Sea area. The research vessels are equipped with comprehensive instrumentation for generating 3D visualizations of sedimentary deposits and the underlying bedrock. Information collected on off-shore deposits and seafloor conditions can also be used for environmental studies. Our vessels, equipment and expertise have been used to plan underwater constructions, to route tunnels, cables and waterways, and to locate wrecks and other objects. GTK has also developed a submersible magnetic measurement system for detecting metallic objects (bombs and ammunition). Our new catamaran vessel has water jet propulsion, making it easy to operate in shallow water. Besides Finland, marine geological projects have been undertaken off the coasts of Brazil, Sweden, Russia (the Baltic and Arctic Seas), Estonia and the Antarctic.

Radioactive waste management

The primary requirement for potential sites for final disposal of radioactive waste is that the bedrock must be geologically stable. It must be devoid of major fractures zones and have no foreseeable potential for mining or similar projects. Since groundwater could mobilize and transfer radioactive substances into the environment, exhaustive 3-D geological studies and modeling are needed to define fracture systems, hydraulic conductivity and the potential for groundwater migration at alternative sites, not to mention the quality of water. The geomechanical properties of the rocks and the in-situ stress field also require careful study.