Geotechnical, Structural and Site Development Support
BSA Engineers runs the field office and investigative programmes of BSA Consulting Engineers, PLLC. From a single test hole to a complete site development study, our six core programmes carry the engineering from the first collared bore to the stamped certification your lender and your builder expect.
Every programme is executed, logged, and sealed by professionally licensed staff working from our office at 14302 FM 1730, Lubbock, United States (US).
Six Consulting Programmes, One Core Shed Standard
We do not sell a single generic soil test. Each project is assembled from the programmes below into a scope that matches the ground, the structure, and the budget, and every deliverable arrives as a signed, stamped engineering record tied to a numbered borehole.
Geotechnical Investigations and Soil Borings
The backbone of our practice is the drilled investigation. We mobilize a rig to your site, collar boreholes at the planned structure locations, and advance an auger string to the design depth while recording rate of advance, soil color, moisture, and refusal. Split-spoon samples are recovered at standard intervals and racked in numbered wooden core boxes, and undisturbed samples are sealed for laboratory transport.
Laboratory work completes the picture. Moisture content, Atterberg limits, grain-size distribution, and compaction characteristics are tested under controlled conditions, and the results are transcribed onto a boring log drawn to a certified depth ruler scale. The investigation report states allowable bearing pressures, describes the groundwater conditions observed, and makes a clear foundation recommendation. For expansions, for new builds, and for sites where prior grading is unknown, the soil boring programme is where every other decision begins.
Our crews log the full column from topsoil to refusal, reconcile field identification with the pocketscope check, and seal the record with the responsible engineer sign-off. When your design team asks for an allowable pressure or a design soil profile, the answer arrives attached to the boring that proves it.
Foundation Design and Review
Foundations live or die by the ground that carries them. We design shallow systems such as spread footings, grade beams, and stiffened slabs, and we design deep systems such as drilled piers and driven piles where surface soils cannot carry the load. Design work starts from the actual boring log, not from a default table, so the footing you pour does not guess at the soil its edge will rest on.
For projects with an existing design, we offer a peer review that checks the submitted foundation plan against the geotechnical report and the building loads. We look at bearing pressures, settlement estimates, pier depths, reinforcement, and the treatment of expansive soils. Where the original design overstates or understates the ground, we say so clearly and we show the numbers that support the correction.
Review services extend to excavation support, underpinning, and the repair of failed footings. When differential movement appears in a structure, we help you decide whether the cause is settlement, shrinking soil, or a construction deficiency, and we specify the fix with the confidence that comes from reading the soil column beneath the slab.
Structural Condition Assessments
Before you buy, renovate, or insure a building, you need to know how the structure is performing today. Our condition assessment walks the building drawing by drawing, looks at the frame, the cladding, the foundations, and the areas where water and movement leave their marks, and produces a prioritized list of findings.
We document cracking, spalling, corrosion, settlement patterns, and signs of overloading, and we tie each observation to its likely cause. Where a crack in a parapet suggests a failed joint and cracking in a wall suggests differential settlement, the report separates the two so your repair budget lands on the real problem and not on the symptom.
Assessments support pre-purchase decisions, leasehold diligence, periodic reserve studies, and the evaluation of structures after unusual events. Every assessment closes with a written condition report that ranks findings by urgency and recommends the repairs, the follow-up inspections, or the further investigation each issue deserves.
Pavement and Materials Testing
Parking lots, driveways, and access roads carry more load than they appear to, and they fail when the base and surface are not matched to the soil beneath. Our pavement programme evaluates the subgrade, selects a base course, and specifies a surface that fits the traffic your site will actually see.
Field density testing on compacted fill and base gives you a pass or fail on the construction lift before the paver arrives, and laboratory testing of materials confirms that the aggregates, cement, and asphaltic mixes meet the contract specification. We sample and test during placement so that a weak lift is caught and corrected while it can still be repaired cheaply, not discovered months later as a cracked surface.
For existing pavements we perform condition surveys and coring to map thickness, identify failed areas, and design the overlay or the patch. Whether the job is a small feedlot pad or a commercial lot that must survive delivery trucks, the pavement programme ties the surface you drive on to the ground that carries it.
Drainage and Site Grading Studies
Water is the quietest enemy a site can have. Surface drainage that ponds against a foundation, and subsurface water that rises into a footing, both do their damage slowly and expensively. Our drainage and grading studies look at your site as a watershed and shape it so that water leaves predictably and harmlessly.
We review the existing grades, calculate catchments, and check that flows are directed to outfalls and away from structures. We verify that positive slope is maintained at building perimeters, that swales carry design storms without overtopping the shoulders, and that detention expectations match the real percolation of your soil, measured rather than assumed.
Grading studies set cut and fill, check compaction targets for placed structural fill, and reconcile the earthwork with the geotechnical plan so the site is drained and ready before the first footing is formed. The deliverable is a set of grades and drainage notes that the grading contractor and the civil designer can build from without conflict.
Construction Phase Observation
A good geotechnical report earns its value only when it is followed in the field. During construction we place an experienced observer on your site to confirm that the work matches the engineered drawings and the applicable specifications, catching deviations while they are still inexpensive to fix.
Observation covers excavation to the approved bearing elevation, the placement and compaction of structural fill, the installation of reinforcement, soil-moisture-density control, and the concreting and curing of footings and grade beams. Our observer documents every step with field notes and, where necessary, density and strength tests, and reports promptly to the owner when conditions deviate from the design.
Your team gains the comfort of knowing that a sealed engineer stood beside the crew at the moment the load was applied, and the record provides the verification your lender, your warranty, and your long-term maintenance plan all rely on. Signing off a foundation that was built and checked to the report is the final, honest link in the chain from boring to building.
The Path From Request to Signed Report
An engagement with BSA Consulting Engineers, PLLC follows the same disciplined line as one of our logs: scope, mobilize, investigate, test, and certify. The steps below show what a typical project looks like from your first call.
Scope
We discuss the structure, the site, and the budget, and confirm the programme that fits.
Propose
You receive a fixed written proposal with the bore count, depths, testing, and fee made plain.
Mobilize
We clear access, schedule the rig, and collar the first bore to the survey layout.
Log and Test
Field logging and laboratory testing produce the numbers your report will carry.
Certify
The report is drawn, stamped, and signed by the responsible licensed engineer.
Ready to Put the Ground on the Record?
Tell us about your site and we will recommend the programme, give you a fixed fee, and hold a rig date around your construction schedule.
Request a Proposal From BSA Consulting Engineers, PLLC