Environmental & Geotechnical Drilling Projects

For more than 40 years, Marathon Underground has partnered with geotechnical and environmental engineering firms across Canada to deliver specialized drilling and subsurface investigation services for infrastructure, environmental, and engineering projects. These investigations provide critical data used for site characterization, environmental assessment, structural analysis, and geotechnical design across a wide range of industries and project environments.

Many environmental and geotechnical drilling programs are conducted in locations where access is limited due to terrain, surrounding infrastructure, environmental sensitivity, or confined working conditions. To meet these challenges, Marathon Underground has developed specialized drilling capabilities designed specifically for remote access and restricted-access investigations.

Marathon Underground operates a fleet of lightweight modular drilling systems engineered to provide the performance of larger conventional rigs while maintaining exceptional portability and flexibility. The company’s EXPLO drill fleet is specifically designed for remote environmental and geotechnical investigations, with each unit capable of breaking down into seven individual components weighing less than 800 pounds combined. This modular design allows the equipment to access locations where standard drilling equipment cannot operate while still delivering the power required to advance through both soil and rock formations efficiently.

The EXPLO drilling systems provide high-performance production capabilities with five-foot drilling strokes and average production rates of approximately eight feet per hour in challenging subsurface conditions. These systems are regularly used for environmental sampling, rock coring, monitoring well installation, instrumentation placement, and geotechnical data collection.

For more complex projects, Marathon Underground also deploys its specialized Odyssey Diamond Drill, which has been configured specifically for difficult and unconventional drilling applications including bridge and dam rehabilitation projects, marine and barge-based drilling operations, and angled borehole installations. The Odyssey drill is highly modular and can be broken down into three transportable components that can be assembled in approximately 20 minutes, allowing crews to hand-carry equipment into otherwise inaccessible locations.

Over the years, Marathon Underground has successfully completed environmental and geotechnical drilling projects across a wide variety of challenging environments, including bridges, dams, frozen lakes, railway corridors, transit tunnels, parking structures, highway embankments, sidewalks, and small marine barges.

By combining specialized drilling equipment, experienced crews, and adaptable project execution strategies, Marathon Underground continues to deliver safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible drilling services for complex geotechnical and environmental investigation programs throughout Canada.