A 54LT makes its first appearance at the Texas Longhorns football stadium to obtain information about the concrete footings set when the stadium was constructed in 1922.

GeoTest Services, San Antonio, TX

If you were inside Darrell K. Royal Football Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin this summer, you would have seen more than the football team practicing from the grandstands. A Model 54LT, with Raymond Meinhardt at the controls (machine operator for GeoTest Services of San Antonio), drove through the entrance gates of the stadium, up the ramps and right next to the Longhorn cheerleader’s office for the first of eleven locations to create access boreholes.

Thus began the preliminary field work for an upcoming expansion project which will begin after the 2006 football season is over this fall. The project calls for new seating to be added above the existing seating on the northeast and northwest corners of the stadium. Data was needed to see if the footings were capable of supporting the additional loads for the new upper deck seating for the Longhorns home games. With access to the footings being confined by the existing structure, a conventional drill rig was unable to complete the work.

Paul Wolf, owner of GeoTest, said the 54LT was the “perfect” machine for the project. The small size of the machine and the rubber tracks allowed easy access to the sampling sites without damage to the staduim surfaces. The GeoTest field team was able to get the 54LT up against the old columns and open up bore holes right down to the top of the spread footings. “It was very important to get as close to columns as possible,” Paul explained, “because some of the footings were thought to be only 4 ft. by 4 ft.” That only left about 18 in. of footing extending past the edge of the column. “We wanted to be sure to get right on top of the footings so the concrete sample could be taken,” Paul added.
Using the rotation feature on the GH42 hammer, the crew cored through the concrete flat work. Bore holes were made down to a depth of 9- to 21-ft. using a combination of augers and the RS60 sampler. Then a concrete coring company came in and used a 10-ft. long core barrel and extensions to retrieve core samples from the footings and verify the depths and strength of the existing footings.

Eleven locations were completed in just under two days. To sum up the project, Paul added, “GO LONGHORNS!!!”.

Because of its size, the 54LT was able to drive up against the old columns and open up bore holes down to the top of the spread footings. A concrete coring company (right) used a 10-ft. long core barrel and extensions to retrieve core samples from the footings.   Take a look at the Geoprobe® 54 Series machines at www.geoprobe.com.