SPECIALISTS IN GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING
DAVIES
INTEGRATED
GEOTECHNICAL
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DIG Engineering Ltd. is a geotechnical engineering consulting firm based in Metro Vancouver, focused on practical, cost-effective solutions backed by tailored investigation, clear design, and attentive field review. Our senior engineers have delivered thousands of projects across British Columbia and bring more than 55 years of combined engineering and construction experience. We carry forward the Davies Geotechnical legacy, serving Metro Vancouver and B.C. since 2001, with a strong emphasis on responsiveness, clarity, and direct access to senior engineers.
We own and operate our cone penetration testing (CPT) equipment and maintain an in-house soils lab. That combination delivers better ground information, faster and at lower cost to our clients. Advanced testing, rapid turnaround on results, and real-time engineer oversight reduce uncertainty, lower construction costs, and keep design and permitting on schedule and on budget.
Clients choose us because we are responsive, experienced, and practical. From the first call to the final field review, you work directly with our junior and senior level engineers and field technologists who understand your project and provide immediate, practical input. We support projects of all sizes and complexity, helping teams move quickly from questions to construction with confidence.
Ready to move your project forward or just have a general enquiry? Click 'Request a Quote' above to contact us.
Single homes, duplexes, townhouses, laneway and garden suites, and low-rise apartments. Typical jobs include infill redevelopments on tight urban lots, additions and lifts, new garages and carriage houses, basement lowers, pool pads, and retaining systems for grade changes or hillside lots. We work across local ground conditions, from North Shore rock sites to Richmond and Delta soft soils, and help owners, builders, and architects move quickly from concept to building permit and construction.
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Mid-rise wood-over-concrete, rental and strata towers, hotel and student housing, and transit-oriented sites. Projects often involve one to six levels of underground parking, long property-line excavations beside heritage or active structures, podium retail with loading ramps, crane base and tower pad planning, and constrained downtown or town-centre footprints. We support phased redevelopments and contaminated site conversions where existing utilities, streetscapes, and neighbors make excavation and staging complex.
New roads, restorations, widenings, intersections, roundabouts, and bridge or culvert replacements. Utility corridors and trunk mains, pump and lift stations, reservoirs, storm outfalls, dikes and flood-protection works, airport, and transit facilities. Schools, universities, hospitals, community centres, parks, sports fields, trails, boardwalks, and seawalls, along with small wharves, ferry and community docks, and shoreline protection. Solid-waste and environmental work such as transfer stations and related civil earthworks.
Retail storefronts and small plazas, office and medical buildings, breweries and food-processing expansions, steel frame to tilt up warehouses and logistics centers, heavy-duty yards and truck courts, railyard and port-adjacent facilities, and cold-storage floors. Energy and utilities work includes substations, switching yards, pole and tower foundations, EV charging depots, and data-centre sites, along with telecom towers. Resource and aggregates sites, plus agricultural and aquaculture projects like barns, silos, greenhouses, processing slabs, and hatcheries, are part of this sector.
We keep it simple: you email us → we hop on a quick call → we prepare a proposal for your review base don the proposed scope and anticipated soil conditions from our project database and published sources. After any tweaks and acceptance, we organize the investigation. Fieldwork is determined by the size and the site conditions. We own our CPT system (West Coast CPT) and pair it with the right drilling methods, auger, sonic, mud rotary, coring, and ODEX. We also utilize test pits, SPT/DCPT, and MASW (Vs30) where seismic inputs matter. Where needed we perform field permeability (infiltration) testing and groundwater measurement/monitoring. Samples are collected carefully for lab analysis while on-site, and notes, photos, logs make conditions clear for the whole team.
Samples come back to our in-house soil lab for the essentials that drive design: soil type, gradation and index properties, density / unit weight, moisture, Atterberg limits, and strength / stiffness characterization (e.g., consolidation, shear / triaxial where warranted, plus CPT / SPT correlations and Vs data). High-quality data means a better calibrated ground model, which lets us design more efficiently, often reducing construction costs through appropriately sized foundations, subgrades, and shoring.
We turn analysis into buildable design: foundations (shallow, mat, deep with driven or drilled steel, timber, pipe, micro, and helical piles), ground improvement (preload with wick drains, RIC, stone columns, dynamic compaction, soil mixing, jet grouting), and excavation support (anchors or soil nails with shotcrete, soldier pile and lagging, sheet pile, secant, and jet-grout walls), with dewatering and seismic parameters. Deliverables include a stamped geotechnical report for permits, Schedule B Letters of Assurance, coordinated construction drawings, and performance-based specs.
We conduct field reviews to verify design assumptions in the ground and to fulfill the commitments in our Letters of Assurance. Typical checks include prepared foundation bearing subgrade and slab preparation, shoring / anchor performance, pile / helical installation, backfill / compaction testing (nuclear density gauge testing where required), groundwater conditions, and any design adjustments needed on site. You’ll receive clear field reports and timely memos / letters for field reviews, followed by a concise close-out review and issuance of final letter of assurance for Building Permit Occupancy (Schedule CB).
Principal Senior Geotechnical Engineers at DIG Engineering Ltd.
Dear Clients and Project Partners,
We’re Ben Davies, P.Eng. and Paul A. Davies, P.Eng. (no relation, just coincidence!), senior principals at DIG Engineering Ltd. Thank you for considering us for your project. Our promise is simple: we will be responsive, clear, and practical, from the first email to close-out.
With 55+ years of combined geotechnical and construction experience, we turn complex ground conditions into buildable, permit-ready designs and straightforward recommendations your builders can use. You’ll have direct access to senior engineers, timely answers when decisions matter, and concise review and reporting that keeps schedules moving and budgets on track.
We proudly support projects of every type and scale: single-family and infill, townhomes and low-rise, strata and mid/high-rise mixed-use, municipal roads and utilities, community facilities, commercial/industrial, and everything between. Our team serves the Lower Mainland from West Vancouver to Hope; the Sea to Sky including Whistler, Pemberton, Squamish; Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and beyond. If you are located outside these areas, we are still happy to hear from you as we work allover BC and sometimes Alberta.
As part of our recent corporate update, we now deliver services through DIG Engineering Ltd. (Davies Integrated Geotechnical Engineering Ltd.), an independent BC practice led by the same senior engineers and project team that brought you Davies Geotechnical Inc. Day-to-day, that means the same people, same standard of care, and streamlined communication, so you can expect continuity and a smooth experience on every file.
Our commitment to you:
- Responsiveness & access: direct lines to senior engineers and quick, useful answers.
- Clarity: plain-English recommendations and reports your builder and reviewers can action.
- Practicality: designs grounded in real-world constraints that are constructible, code-conformant, and cost-aware.
- Accountability: senior review on every file and proactive coordination with your team.
We’re genuinely excited to work with you on your project. If you’d like a quick feasibility read or a full permit package, send us a note, we’ll get back with a clear path forward.
220 - 2055 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC
8540 Greenall Avenue,
Burnaby BC