Ground Penetrating Radar

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a noninvasive tool that has been used to map subsurface conditions in a wide variety of applications. Many of these applications are well suited for evaluation of highway systems to determine pavement thickness and condition. GPR is basically a subsurface “anomaly” detector, as such it will map changes in the underground profile due to contrasts in the electromagnetic conductivity across material interfaces. In a GPR system, short pulses of radio wave energy travel through the pavement structure and create echos at boundaries of dissimilar materials, such as at an asphalt-base interface.