ROADBUILDING
STRINGLESS PAVING HELPS AIRPORT EXPANSION PROJECT TAKE FLIGHT Challenging contract draws on capabilities of Topcon Millimeter GPS for precision and production success By Larry Trojak
We went with the Millimeter GPS from Topcon and, despite it being our first experience with that particular solution, we were very pleased with the results – pleased enough, in fact, to choose it for this project. Mike Darby, LaFarge Canada
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>> JUNE 2020
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he ongoing expansion and renovation of Vancouver International Airport (YVR) is a $5 billion CAD project (a 30-year plan that is actually $9.1 billion when adjusted for inflation) that reimagines what an airport needs to be in order to handle an already impressive growth curve that portends even bigger things ahead. So when work was needed to upgrade the runway and create a brand new remote stand operations area, the status quo also took a back seat to the latest GNSS-based solutions available. Using millimetre-grade, stringless milling and paving technology LaFarge Canada got impressive results in production, was able to keep crew size down, saved capital equipment costs, and met a challenging window for completion.
Looking at options
Much like its counterparts to the south – Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles – Vancouver and the larger British Columbia area are seeing record-setting growth and seemingly nonstop development. That influx of new residents, businesses and visitors has resulted in a dramatic upsurge of traffic into and out of YVR. In fact, estimates indicate that the airport – already well ahead of its target of reaching 25 million passengers by 2020 – will reach 31
million passengers per year by 2022. To better cope with that volume, changes are taking place in almost every segment of airport operations. According to Mike Darby, LaFarge’s involvement began several years ago. “At that time – it was early 2017 – we had landed a contract to do some milling for an overlay project on the south runway at YVR,” he said. “It was a three-month, 40,000 ton job and we felt it could be the perfect job for Millimeter GPS. Fortunately for us, 2017 was a CONEXPO year and we had plans to attend. Working with Mark Piotto and his team at the B.C. branch of Brandt Positioning Group, we all headed down to Vegas.” While there, Darby said they looked at two solutions – one from Topcon and one from a manufacturer on whose systems he had a lot of previous experience– so it afforded them a great opportunity to compare the two. The comparisons revealed some striking differences which made Darby’s decision much easier. In order to get tight vertical accuracies, the Topcon Millimeter GPS solution uses a base station and a series of lasers which create a laser zone accessed by receivers on the machine. By comparison, the other system they were considering uses a robotic total station for each machine. Because the YVR South Runway Project was calling for two mills and two pavers
– with machine control on all four pieces – that would have meant four different robots. “And, because of the distance we were paving every day, we could conceivably have needed twice that number,” said Darby. “At $60,000 to $80,000 per robot, that’s a huge investment.”
Remote stand demands precision
He added that, based on his experience with those robots, loss of signal when something comes between the robot and the machine – any of the 50-plus vehicles they’d have on site, for example – would be an issue. “If a dump truck blocks that robot, I lose the control on the machine,” he said. “Then, once he moves, the robot begins searching for that machine to re-connect. The production goals I had for that project – having milling done and the runway open in the morning – told me that solution would simply not work. We went with the Millimeter GPS from Topcon and, despite it being our first experience with that particular solution, we were very pleased with the results – pleased enough, in fact, to choose it for this project.” The project on which LaFarge brought the millimetre-grade solution to bear was a paving effort to create a remote stand operation (RSO), a gateless area at which aircraft – in this case aircraft heading to and from the U.S.
