Underground
- Power
- Gas
- Water
- Sewer
- Other subsurface infrastructure
Subsurface intelligence for construction
See through concrete — before you dig, cut, or drill.
See Thru Concrete maps hidden infrastructure inside concrete, underground, and above ceilings so construction teams can understand existing conditions before work begins.
Working prototype
Live jobsite pilots
Patented sensing
Existing conditions
Know what's there before you build.
Construction teams often make decisions based on incomplete or outdated information about what exists underground or inside a structure.
See Thru Concrete provides a way to understand those hidden conditions before crews dig, drill, cut, or renovate.
Applications
A two-pass workflow. Multiple layers of information.
A fast detection pass identifies disturbances, followed by a slower mapping pass that builds a structured record of what may sit behind the surface and how its electrical signature changes.
LocatingFinding what is behind the surface before you cut into it.
Inside concrete
- Rebar location, spacing and cover
- Conduit
- Changes along a reinforcing member
- Post-tension cable and embedded services
Above ceilings
- MEP
- Pipes
- Conduit
- Other hidden systems
ConditionAssessing the state of the concrete itself, clad or bare.
Through metal cladding
- Delamination
- Corrosion
- Cracks in the concrete
- Designed for same-side scanning without routine panel removal
Direct to concrete
- Hollowness and voids
- Cracks and delamination
- Electrical changes along reinforcing steel
- Trapped water and moisture
The platform
Raw scan in. Live cross-section out.
The dashboard is designed to turn measured field perturbations into an interpreted cross-section, classifying likely rebar, conduit, pipes, voids, and moisture-related anomalies with confidence estimates.
Process
From site scan to usable information.
01 — Scan
Sweep the area to identify disturbances, then map areas of interest by position and depth setting.
02 — Detect
Classify measured disturbances into likely object or material classes.
03 — Map
Convert the interpreted measurements into a structured spatial representation.
04 — Plan
Use the information to make better construction decisions.
Technology
Built on a different electromagnetic sensing approach.
Our proprietary sensing approach drives a very-low-frequency electromagnetic field into concrete or soil and measures how the surrounding volume electrically loads that field. The system is being developed toward approximately 6 ft of concrete depth, with performance currently being validated in controlled setups.
Cole FranklinCo-Founder & Chief Scientist · Principal Scientist, Apple · 11 patents
01
Compact field hardware
Low-power-class field hardware designed for compact deployment.
02
Simpler hardware
Compact transducer, digitizer, and tablet architecture designed to scale.
03
Targeting approx. 6 ft in concrete
One low-frequency electromagnetic measurement approach for concrete and soil.
04
Patented technology
Proprietary physics, invented by our team.
Measurement
Finding the steel is not the same as characterizing changes along it.
GPR is excellent at locating reinforcing steel. Our method is being developed to add another kind of information: changes in electrical loading along the same member, which may reveal changes in condition that a strong radar reflection alone does not quantify.
Corrosion can change cross-section, surface condition, conductivity, contact, and local loss. Those changes can alter the electrical signature along a bar. Controlled, labeled field trials are still required before corrosion severity or remaining section can be claimed as a product measurement.
Method
Returns
Where it stops
Ground-penetrating radar
ReturnsBar location, spacing and cover
Where it stopsPrimarily provides reflection-based information used to locate and characterize subsurface features.
Half-cell potential
ReturnsCorrosion-potential or condition indicators
Where it stopsUseful condition indicators, but they do not directly measure remaining steel section.
Polarisation resistance
ReturnsLocalized corrosion-rate measurements
Where it stopsCan provide valuable local condition information, but does not by itself map accumulated section loss across an entire member.
Breaking out and measuring the bar
ReturnsDirect physical measurement at the opened location
Where it stopsDestructive, slow, samples a handful of locations and damages the element it measures.
See Thru Concrete
ReturnsElectrical-loading changes along a mapped member
Where it stopsCondition classification and quantitative section-loss estimates remain development and validation targets.
We do not claim bar grade, concrete compressive strength, certified corrosion grade, or structural capacity from the scan alone. Those require appropriate validation and, where necessary, physical testing.
Why it matters
Better information before the work starts.
Retrofit instead of rebuild
Improve the first-party map of reinforcement and other hidden conditions so engineers can target follow-up investigation and reduce reliance on incomplete drawings or assumptions.
Inspect without closing
Designed for nondestructive, same-side scanning that may reduce disruption compared with opening the structure for every investigation point.
Broader coverage, not just isolated openings
Destructive openings sample specific locations. A repeatable scanning workflow can provide broader first-party coverage and help target the locations that merit follow-up.
Track change over time
Because the sensing method is nondestructive, the same element can be rescanned over time. Repeated measurements may support change tracking once repeatability is validated.
Who it's for
Built for the people who own the risk, not the schedule.
01
Healthcare systems
California acute care buildings must be capable of staying operational after an earthquake by 2030, and the upgrade path depends on knowing what reinforcement is actually in the building. Better first-party information can help engineers refine assumptions and target the investigations needed for retrofit decisions.
02
Airports and ports
Decks, aprons, wharves and piles that cannot be closed in order to be inspected, sitting in the chloride exposure that attacks them fastest. The same-side, nondestructive workflow is intended to fit constrained operating windows.
03
Bridges, highways and transit
Delamination and corroding reinforcement start inside the slab and reach the surface late. Map subsurface anomalies nondestructively and use the results to target follow-up investigation where it is most valuable.
04
Parking structures
The most chloride-loaded concrete anyone owns. Vehicles carry brine directly onto the deck where it ponds, and post-tension corrosion stays invisible until it is not.
05
Universities and campuses
Decades of deferred maintenance with no way to rank it except by what has become visible. Turn a backlog into a capital plan backed by measurements.
06
Structural and forensic engineers
You carry the liability and you write the inspection scope. Use broader nondestructive mapping to target destructive openings and other follow-up tests more intelligently.
Existing structures
Maintaining a structure means knowing what is actually inside it.
Bridges, hospitals, garages, and towers get inspected on a schedule and repaired on a budget. Both decisions rest on the condition of concrete poured decades ago, covered since, and never opened.
Scanning is intended to give the owner a first-party subsurface map without routinely taking the structure apart.
Section · deck slab, delamination01
Bridges and transport structures
Decks, piers, and abutments carry load through concrete that freezes, thaws, and takes de-icing salt every winter. Delamination and corroding reinforcement begin inside the slab and reach the surface late, well after a cheap repair stopped being an option.
Inspected today by
Chain drag and hammer sounding for hollow areas, cores pulled for testing, and a lane closure to do either.
Section · column, crack through cover02
Seismic upgrades and healthcare
When the reinforcement inside an existing building is unknown, the engineer has to assume conservatively. Conservative assumptions make a building calculate worse than it is, and a building that calculates badly gets recommended for replacement.
Better mapping of the reinforcement that is actually present can help engineers refine assumptions and decide where additional verification is needed for a retrofit.
Inspected today by
Selective demolition and destructive testing, scheduled around wards that cannot close.
Section · clad column, corrosion behind panel03
Buildings and facades
Owners carry a standing duty to keep columns, facades, and structure safe for as long as they hold the asset. Cladding and finishes cover the elements that fail, so deterioration gets found on a sample and the rest of the building is inferred.
Inspected today by
Removing panels, or drilling a small hole and feeding in a borescope, then reinstating the facade.
Reduced destructive access
The sensing pass itself is nondestructive and may reduce the amount of coring, panel removal, or selective demolition needed for investigation.
Nothing damaged
The sensing pass does not require intentionally damaging the element being measured.
Nondestructive workflow
A very-low-frequency electromagnetic field generated by compact field hardware. Site operating procedures and safety requirements will be established through validation and deployment planning.
As built, not as drawn
Mapped perturbations associated with material changes, voids, moisture, and other subsurface conditions.
Broader coverage
A first-party spatial measurement that can complement targeted physical samples.
Trended over time
The same element can be rescanned over time, creating a path to change tracking once measurement repeatability is established.
Contact
Let's talk about your project.
Tell us where the unknowns are. We'll come back with whether a pilot makes sense and what a scan would cover.