Geoptic

This category is open to any company that can show excellence through new product or technology development for the ground engineering industry between January 2022 and January 2023. Entrants must demonstrate how the innovative new product or technology has delivered benefits in health and safety, in-use performance, sustainability or cost during on site delivery of a geotechnical project. Evidence to show how the product or technology can improve the performance or quality of service that the purchasing company offers to its clients is essential.

From Natural Radiation to Structural Information

Geoptic has developed novel instrumentation and analysis tools that exploit naturally occurring cosmic ray muons to form images of otherwise hard-to-access objects and locations. Through a technique that is similar to an x-ray, Geoptic is able to image objects non-invasively, non-destructively and without any contact with the object. Geoptic is successfully applying this method, known as muon tomography, to the discovery, location and characterisation of hidden voiding and shafts in the overburden of railway tunnels. The method vastly reduces the need for invasive investigations and thus is more cost-effective and carries less risk. In developing and applying muon tomography to the tunnelling industry, Geoptic has demonstrated a high degree of technical innovation, which has resulted in both national and international recognition and ongoing collaborations with Tier 1 companies and organisations.