Commercial & industrial
Warehouses, factories, heavy slabs, commercial buildings, yards and operating facilities.
Geotechnical services · Adelaide & South Australia
Ground investigation for decisions that carry real load.
Commercial, industrial and civil geotechnical investigations planned, coordinated, interpreted and reported by a geotechnical engineer—with a specialist focus on soft ground, foundations, subgrades and practical ground improvement.
Commercial, industrial, subdivision and civil work. Individual residential soil tests are outside the current service scope.
SA focusedAdelaide metropolitan and South Australian projects
CommercialIndustrial, subdivision, civil and significant structures
Engineer-ledInvestigation planning, interpretation and reporting connected
Soft groundSettlement, reactivity, subgrade and improvement pathways
Project fit
For developments where the ground can change the design.
The investigation is built around the proposed development and the engineering questions—not a fixed residential soil-test template. Complex multistorey and deep-foundation projects are scoped individually, with supplementary specialists and peer review where the risk requires it.
Subdivisions & civil works
Roads, services, platforms, earthworks, retaining structures and development infrastructure.
Multistorey development
Apartments, mixed-use and larger developments, with investigation depth and specialist inputs matched to the structural concept.
Pavements & working platforms
Subgrade strength, existing pavement condition, construction access and rehabilitation inputs.
Tanks & significant structures
Foundation parameters for tanks, stormwater systems, plant, walls and other load-sensitive structures.
Soft-ground sites
Variable fill, compressible soils, reactive clays and sites where settlement or constructability may control the solution.
Investigation scope
Select the method that answers the design question.
Fieldwork and reporting are scoped with reference to AS 1726:2017 and relevant field and laboratory test methods. Not every technique belongs on every site; the combination must suit the geology, structure and risk.
Planning
Desktop review, geological context, development inputs, investigation locations, depths, access, services and safety planning.
Drilling & sampling
Mechanical boreholes, auger and push-tube sampling, soil recovery and engineering logging through suitable field providers.
SPT
Standard Penetration Testing within boreholes to support interpretation of density, consistency and foundation conditions.
CPT / CPTu
Continuous cone and piezocone profiling coordinated through specialist providers, particularly useful across soft or variable ground.
DCP & shallow testing
Dynamic Cone Penetrometer testing, hand investigation and test pits where shallow variability and subgrade response are important.
Groundwater
Groundwater observations during drilling and, where the design question requires it, monitoring-well installation and repeat measurements.
Pavement testing
Pavement coring, material sampling, DCP, FWD and complementary condition data selected to suit the assessment objective.
Laboratory testing
Project-specific classification, strength, reactivity, CBR, consolidation and chemical testing through suitable laboratories.
Field capability
The right evidence at the right depth.
Specialist plant is coordinated to suit the agreed scope. Provider availability, access, test standards, traffic controls and reinstatement requirements are confirmed in the project proposal.
Illustrative field-capability images. Equipment and field providers are confirmed for each commissioned investigation.
Engineering interpretation
Data becomes useful when it changes the design decision.
A geotechnical report should connect the encountered conditions to foundation selection, settlement, earthworks, construction risk and the information the structural or civil designer actually needs.
Clear responsibilityKontain provides geotechnical design parameters and recommendations. The structural engineer remains responsible for structural footing and foundation design.
- 01Site setting, published geology and investigation basis
- 02Borehole, sampling, SPT, CPT/CPTu, DCP and laboratory results
- 03Interpreted geological and geotechnical ground model
- 04Allowable and ultimate bearing-capacity parameters where applicable
- 05Total and differential settlement considerations
- 06Soil reactivity, shrink–swell and heave assessment where relevant
- 07Design parameters for shallow and deep foundation systems where supported by the data
- 08Subgrade, earthworks, excavation, retaining, groundwater and construction recommendations
- 09Inspection hold points, limitations and any supplementary investigation required
Specialist focus
Soft ground needs more than a single strength number.
Compressible and variable soils can make settlement, construction access, negative skin friction and time-dependent behaviour more important than ultimate bearing capacity. Investigation methods may include push-tube samples, CPTu, field vane testing, consolidation testing and groundwater monitoring where required.
Recommendations consider conventional excavation, replacement, stabilisation, staged construction, preload, deep foundations and geosynthetic reinforcement on their merits. Product supply is not treated as the default answer.
Discuss a soft-ground siteProposed structure
Foundation / working platform
Improvement or reinforcement where justified
Soft, variable or compressible ground
Competent founding stratum
Concept only · the investigation defines the actual profile and design parametersPavement & subgrade investigations
Test the pavement response—not just the surface condition.
Existing pavements and new civil platforms can be assessed using a project-specific combination of visual condition data, coring, sampling, DCP, laboratory testing and Falling Weight Deflectometer measurements.
- Existing layer configuration and material condition
- Subgrade strength and variability
- Deflection response and weak-area identification
- Rehabilitation, overlay and working-platform inputs
- Ground-improvement and geogrid options where justified
Project pathway
One line of sight from scope to report.
Kontain coordinates the investigation around the design decision while retaining clear responsibility for specialist field services, laboratory data, interpretation and any investigation limitations.
Define the decision
Review the proposed structure, loads, footprint, basements, programme and the decisions the report must support.
Plan the investigation
Select appropriate boreholes, in-situ testing, sampling, laboratory work and specialist field providers.
Complete the fieldwork
Coordinate access, utility information, traffic and site controls, then record the encountered conditions.
Build the ground model
Interpret field and laboratory data together, identify variability and test the likely foundation or earthworks response.
Report and support design
Issue usable parameters, recommendations, limitations and construction hold points, then respond to the design team.
Scope clarity
Important boundaries are stated before fieldwork.
- Individual residential site classifications and soil tests are not currently offered.
- Kontain does not directly undertake engineering rock coring or rock-mass logging.
- Practical drilling refusal is reported as refusal and is not automatically represented as confirmed bedrock.
- Contaminated-land and environmental assessment are separate specialist scopes.
- CPT/CPTu, FWD and other specialist services are subject to provider availability confirmed at quotation.
Planning a South Australian development?