Ground Penetrating Radar is a geophysical tool with a very wide range of applications, but also with a number of fundamental constraints. It can be used to detect cavities, faults and dykes, as well as mapping soil stratigraphy. Radar also has applications in groundwater studies. Civil engineers find radar useful in analysing roads and pavements, in the detection of reinforcement bars in concrete and the location of public utilities such as pipes and cables.
Geotechnology has carried out many very large GPR surveys, including a 57km long 7 frequency survey of the A465. The method does have a number of key limitations and it is only through a thorough understanding of these that good effective surveys can be designed.
