The article i'm writing about comes from Highway Contractor, a heavy civil/highway construction trade journal. As with any construction project, completing the early stages of road building is all about doing it right the first time. Often this requires the use of new technologies.
Contractors typically have three goals for a job: do it safely, move the dirt one time and move the dirt quickly and efficiently. The article i read talks of evolving technologies for grading equipment that will help contractors meet the 3 goals just mentioned. When site preparation companies start talking about their work we find that it is less about the dozer, the grader or the compactor and much more about the available technology that will make the most efficient use of the equipment.
In this article there is a lengthy discussion about a program the CAT is releasing that connect all of a projects grading equipment together and to the project drawings so that each machine can monitor grade elevations, grade slopes and soil compaction as they work. This alleviates the need for a grade checker (person) to continuously survey the site. Not only does this new program allow the machines to stay in constant calibration and avoid hitting each other, it also allows for underground utilities to be input and subsequent avoidance zones implemented. This information helps insure no damage is caused to these utilities and certainly drives home the contractors' goals of doing the job right the first time and moving dirt as fast and as efficiently as possible.
I really like having different topics to read about. I had no clue that the main goal for highway contractors was mainly concering dirt. Now I know when I am driving through a construction zone some of what the men are doing.
ReplyDeleteI second Sarah, I know nothing about construction and this is pretty interesting. The 3 goals make sense, but it sure does take some construction projects forever...like the one by my house next to Sonic.
ReplyDeletePretty cool stuff. So the guys operating the equipment can see in real time exactly where they are and what they need to do? There could be big problems if someone screws up entering drawings into the system.
ReplyDeleteAdvancing technologies must be making construction a lot more efficient but these processes still need to be managed carefully to ensure success.
ReplyDeleteLast weekend I visited Great Smoky Mountain National Park with one of my classes and spoke with one of the Park directors about projects they've been working on, one of which being fixing all of the roads throughout the park. They gave the contractors very specific instructions and requirements but ended but having to make them do it all over again because the grading wasn't flawless. The contractors had to redo 6 miles of freshly completed road all because some fractions of an inch along the way made the car ride bumpy.
This sounds like a huge advancement in grading technology. I often pass by a grade checker at a road project with a measurement stick in his hand, and can't help but think how stupid it is that a job of that simplicity can't be done by computer equipment integrated into the heavy machinery. It sounds like this is a step in the right direction.
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