Terraprobe Geoscience Corp. took second place in the 2006 New Ventures BC competition. The Burnaby company uses non-destructive Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) to detect conduits, rebar and other structural elements embedded in concrete, and to locate buried utilities. The technology can also measure corrosion in rebar buried in concrete.
The company has grown to 14 employees and is now profitable, with sales of more than $1.2 million in 2008.
“We’re doing really well,” says company president Csaba Ekes. “Our market share is growing, we can afford better people and better equipment and we’re doing more research and development.”
He says the firm is stretching the possibilities of its technology to try to find ways to detect targets that currently aren’t possible, such as finding deterioration in underground water and sewer pipes. “There’s a tremendous need for this,” says Ekes, “because currently there is no reliable way to inspect the aging buried water and wastewater infrastructure.”