The ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of Exploration Drill Rigs

Celebrating 75-years in business, Eustis Engineering LLC is the third oldest continuously operating geotechnical engineering company in the United States. 

“Mr. Eustis was a pioneer in soil mechanics starting with the Army Corps of Engineers before starting out on his own,” Larry Rome, Vice President of Operations, said.

With their headquarters outside of New Orleans (Metairie) and others along the I-10 corridor, Eustis nearly doubled in size following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Their pioneering spirit thrives as they serve the industrial, commercial, public sector, and government in their ongoing quest to grow. So, when exploring new markets, they sought a way to offer a lot of services without sinking a lot of money into equipment. They found the tooling and exploration potential they were seeking all within a small unit – the Geoprobe^® 3230DT.

“We call it the ‘Swiss Army knife’ of exploration rigs,” Rome said. “As a company we thought bigger was better, but the 3230DT proved us wrong. It packs a lot of power.”

When looking to open their Houston office, Eustis knew they had the right fit with the 3230DT. The user-friendly rig made overcoming the learning curve easier for operators who Rome said have adjusted well. Accustomed to running traditional rigs doing mud rotary and cone penetration with separate pieces of equipment, adding the 3230DT resulted in a gambit of resources in one unit delivering cost savings they’ve been able to pass along to the client. 

“It doesn’t even compare to other traditional-style mud rotary or geotechnical drill rigs. The versatility is impressive. We can deploy six or seven different techniques – hollow stem auger, mud rotary, rock coring, CPT, instrument installation,” Rome said. “We’ve been able to be more efficient. The Geoprobe^® rig has allowed us to be more versatile and meet our clients expectations while utilizing a single piece of equipment.”

Beyond versatility and efficiency, the power to footprint of the unit has opened job opportunities for Eustis.

“We’re able to get into tight spots based on the footprint. There are three or four projects we would have had to utilize multiple pieces of equipment to facilitate instead of just using the 3230DT,” Rome said.

Eustis utilized the 3230DT at an industrial site roadway project conducting cone penetrometer tests, mud rotary, and instrumentation installation in a tight footprint working with other remediation consultants.

“We successfully completed four different exploration methods within the constraints of timeline and physical space,” Rome said. “The unit exceeded our expectations. It’s totally efficient.” 

Eustis first tested the 3230DT in the New Orleans market before transferring it to the new Houston office.

“We used it so much in southeast Louisiana that  it was hard to let it go to the Houston office,” Rome said. “We were pleased with the utilization and versatility of our first unit. To allow for this to be utilized at more than one office, we decided to purchase an additional unit.” 

At the end of 2020 Eustis added a second 3230DT; this time for Louisiana.

“It’s only two years difference in the ages of the rigs, but the improvements are remarkable. Geoprobe^® is always innovative,” Rome said. “Geoprobe^® takes feedback from the clients and improves the next version, which improves the client, making them more efficient and productive.”

The Geoprobe^® commitment to innovation and the 3230DT have fueled Eustis’ own pioneering spirit.

“We like to be innovative and we’ve been able to do that with this unit. We’re doing things differently down here. There’s nothing we’ve thrown at the 3230DT it hasn’t been able to handle,” Rome said. “Geoprobe^® has absolutely helped us be innovative in the last four to five years. We are utterly impressed with the whole operation. We’ve been to Salina, which illustrates the attention we put into the product – from the rigs, to tools, to service after the sale.”

Once again expanding their services, Eustis recently added the Geoprobe^® seismic CPT module to their arsenal of tools.

“We didn’t have seismic CPT, yet we had a lot of calls for it,” Rome said. “This was a need, not a want due to industrial work accelerating demand. We start trials with it next week.”

Counting on Geoprobe^® to provide great service after the sale and to apply what they learn from clients into products, Rome understands why he’s never heard anything negative about Geoprobe^®. He also now understands Geoprobe^® means more than just environmental.

“Initially when we thought Geoprobe^® it was ‘aww, that’s environmental, we don’t do environmental,’ but they’ve really found their place in the geotechnical market with their newest products,” Rome said. “We wished for a rig like the 3230DT for years. Geoprobe^® definitely delivered. We’re super excited to see what more Geoprobe^® does.”