NEW Geoprobe® ASTRA CPT Provides Proven Advantages

Ryan Ward and Fernando Garcia worked together at an Ohio consulting firm doing in situ testing until the COVID-19 pandemic convinced Garcia to move closer to his grandchildren outside Baltimore, Maryland. Ward and Garcia began talking about starting their own business, eventually launching Stable Ground In-Situ based in Delaware during January 2022.

“It’s been a positive venture with a good number of quality clients,” Ward said. “We’ve gotten over the hump of being a new business and have a solid workload with steady clients.”

In their previous positions they’d used a Geoprobe^® 6625CPT and NOVA CPT cone, so when they decided to go out on their own they chose a 7822DT and a Geoprobe® ASTRA CPT cone.

“We like the versatility of the 7822DT – it gives you a little bit of everything,” Ward said. “It’s good to see Geoprobe® building their own cone, and they gave us the opportunity to test drive it and provide feedback. Being American-made, it’s easier to just make a phone call if there are any issues.”

They call themselves “cowboys”, and approach jobs knowing they might break a cone.

“Some operators will stop if they hit something gravely,” Ward said “A lot of projects we do are calls where they did drilling and ran into lots of demolition material or gravel layers.”

The Geoprobe® ASTRA CPT cone provides them peace of mind when approaching these types of conditions.

“The ASTRA CPT is stronger, and it’s good to have a strong cone for those tougher conditions,” Ward said. “We haven’t had any problems yet.”

To Ward, there are four distinct advantages to using the Geoprobe® ASTRA CPT cone:

• Strength: “The neck of ASTRA, where the threads are, is more robust and reduces the potential of breaking.”
• Interchangeable: “It’s easy to transition between NOVA and ASTRA if necessary, so we keep our NOVA system as a backup.”
• Support: “Geoprobe^® is responsive. There are good people you can call who will listen to you. They’ve really invested in making a really good product.”
• Simple: “I’ve used other systems and I like the simplicity of the Geoprobe^® software. It has simple buttons and user-interface.”

Ward appreciates being able to call Troy Schmidt or Cory Harvey, CPT specialists, to talk through problems they encounter. For him there’s comfort knowing you can reach someone familiar with the system with whom you’ve built a relationship.

“If you call Geoprobe^®, somebody will have an answer for you and that’s not always what you will find with another manufacturer,” Ward said. “Good quality. Good people. Good system. That’s what I like.”

If you’re in Las Vegas for NGWA, stop by booth #351 to see the ASTRA CPT cones.