COMPANY PROFILE
Ottawa’s AATech Scientific
Celebrating 20 years of pile testing
Twenty years have gone by quickly for Sam Salem
and Fred Agharazi. The two men are the founders of
AATech Scientific, an Ottawa-based pile-testing company
the two formed in 1997.
In the 20 years since, AATech Scientific has morphed from
a two-man operation into a lean and efficient company of
over a dozen versatile and globe-trotting specialists who are
well versed in a variety of techniques and who have worked
in a number of countries, states and provinces on a multitude
of different projects.
“Sam and Fred were classmates at the University of
Ottawa; they acquired some experience working in the field,
both together and individually, in the following years,” said
Tony E. Mohammadi, a 12-year company veteran and senior
project manager. (A third man, Dr. Bengt Fellenius, is also a
key partner.) “Following their dream, they decided to start
their own firm, which is now one of the country’s leaders in
foundation engineering and testing.”
AATech Scientific is a busy company, so any anniversary
celebration may be a spur-of-the-moment situation.
“We’ve been keeping really busy so we might do a small
barbecue this summer for employees and their families to
celebrate our 20 years in business,” said Mohammadi.
Though based in Ottawa, AATech Scientific also has sattelite
offices in Calgary and Evans Mills, N.Y., near the Canadian
border.
“We specialize in pile testing,” said Mohammadi. “We offer
dynamic load testing (PDA), which is a very common quantitative
way of verifying pile capacity; we’ve done, over the last
20 years, more than 15,000 PDA tests and counting. Although
By Jim Chliboyko
GUOQIANG XUE/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
AATech Scientific is based in
Ottawa but has evolved into a
versatile and globe-trotting firm
PILING CANADA 61
/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
