SPEC Engineering Services

. The owner of the firm is professional engineer, licensed in Puerto Rico, with over fifteen (15) years of experience in the design and management of commercial, industrial, institutional, highway bridges, and residential projects. The firm provides engineering services using an efficient and high quality approach which provides great value to our clients. In this profile there is a list of projects that each partner has been directly involved with over their professional career. This list includes projects done before the original company was established as part of the personal experience of each team member. Our firm also offers Forensic Engineering services. We have ferroscans, and a GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) to scan the concrete structures. These devices are capable of capturing an inside image of concrete elements, such as walls, columns, slabs or beams in order to determine the diameter, spacing and cover of the existing steel bars. The Ferroscan and the GPR eliminates the need to do destructive exploration on structural elements, resulting in a more accurate and more cost effective way to determine the actual reinforcement inside the concrete elements in order to do an accurate structural analysis of existing structures. The readings obtained by the Ferroscan can reveal the reinforcement inside a concrete element up to 3.5” in depth. The GPR can detect any embedded materials inside the concrete, not just the rebars, up a depth of 14”. The GPR is excellent for determining prestress cables inside slabs, AASHTO beams, and so on. We also have available a CTG-1T (Concrete Thickness Gauges). With the CTG we can determine the structural thickness of a concrete element simply from just one side of the concrete element. Concrete thicknesses for which values can be determined ranges from 1.5 inches up to 6 ft. This is suitable for determining slabs thickness, as well as foundation thickness; only one side is needed for access, hence eliminating the need of over excavating or destroying an existing slab in order to determine its thickness. This device uses the Impact Echo (IE) principle. It can also determine internal delamination of the concrete member. The Forensic Engineering Services (using Non Destructive Testing) provided goes from simple rebar identification to locating them in the concrete if penetrations or inserts need to be done and the rebar cannot be cut, to a full scan analysis to determine the rebar size, spacing and cover. With this information, an accurate structural as-built can be made by introducing this information into a computer 3D model and obtaining the actual demand capacity ratios of the existing structure. The results of the computer model can tell us whether or not the structure must be retrofitted. For structural retrofit we offer several solutions that include FRP (fiber reinforced polymers), steel frames, or combinations of both. We can do the design and implementation of such structural retrofit. We can also provide concrete testing services to determine the compressive strength of cylindrical concrete specimens (ASTM C39) as well as grout (ASTM C109). With the combination of the Ferroscan, and the CTG we can provide a true structural as-built of any concrete structure. Part of the equipment we have for concrete testing is a core drill machine with several core diameters available depending on the element to be tested (ASTM C42). We also have a Windsor Probe Test (ASTM C803) from NDT James, and a digital rebound hammer (ASTM C805) from Proceq. We have available the testing facilities for the curing of the elements. Other services available are tension tests to rebars, load tests to structural and nonstructural elements, FRP testing (ASTM D3039) and installation. This new service provided by our company consists of structural retrofit of columns, beams, walls, and so on. We can do FRP retrofit to bridges also. We determine the existing rating of the bridge and design the required retrofit for the structural elements. We provide adhesion test to concrete and metal surfaces. We can determine the bond strength capacity of patching materials or structural mortars on concrete surfaces (ASTM C1583). Pull out tests of coatings on metal surfaces (ASTM D4541) and over concrete surfaces (ASTM D7234) can also be done with our portable adhesion tester. We can also provide Quality Assurance / Quality Control expert services through seasoned professionals in the pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, petrochemical and power plant industries. Our specialists, certified AWS inspectors and ASNT-TC-1A, have comprehensive on-hands knowledge on several construction disciplines at quality at inspection and superintendent level with working knowledge of process piping, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, tanks, building structures, pipelines and HVAC, as well as strong knowledge in facilities and utilities monitoring and repairs supervision put to the test in successful plant shutdowns for maintenance, repairs and expansions. Quality Control on New Construction projects:
Structural Steel Inspection
Review Welding Procedures
Review Welders Certifications
Weld Inspection on structure members
Weld Inspection to the pre-cast panels
Torque testing
Mechanical Section
Hygienic Piping Inspection
Mechanical Utilities Piping Inspection
MTR's revision, etc. On-going maintenance services:
API 650 & 653- New Welded Steel Tanks for Oil Storage / Tank Inspection, Repair, Alteration And Reconstruction. API 510- Pressure Vessel Inspection
API 570- Piping Inspection

NDE Services:
Visual Inspection
Liquid Penetrant Inspection
Ultrasonic Inspection
Radiographic Test Inspection
Magnetic Particle Inspection
PMI (Positive Material Identification)