ConstructionWorX DIGITAL
Tech-Driven transformation - South West's housebuilding and infrastructure revolution Join Construction Worx roving reporter, Peter Haddock, as he embarks on a journey through the South West, exploring the groundbreaking advancements brought about by Leica technology in the realms of housebuilding and infrastructure. From Devon to Cornwall, the last four years have seen earthworks contractors in high demand for housing, holiday homes and the infrastructure needed to support them. Fast forward to today, and contractors large and small are using technology to deliver even the most complex of projects. Touring around the region, I caught up with operators and engineers to see just how the delivery of earthworks projects has been changed using 3D models and Leica Geosystems machine control. I was joined on the tour by Lee Knowles of local dealer One Point Survey Equipment who has been working with businesses to retrofit excavators and dozers with the technology, whilst supporting engineers with the surveying equipment needed to create the earthworks models the machines require. For Courtney King, owner of Courtney King Plant Hire and Groundworks, adopting machine control has led to the largest project the business has undertaken to date, a major new road outside Newquay. It's a key part of a major new house building project also currently under construction. Courtney: "I originally started using machine control when I was an owner operator, and now it's enabled us to expand the business with the addition of more excavators and a Cat dozer. There is no room for error on a job like this as on this section in particular, we have to carefully place and compact material from a local quarry, building up the road base to meet a new bridge. "So, it's a project we could only deliver by working to a model using 3D machine control on our Doosan 225 excavator and Caterpillar D5 dozer. With support from the team at One Point Survey, we have
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managed to get all of the equipment fitted in time to start work whilst also upskilling the team who are delivering it. "This has involved training on how to operate the dozer and excavator for the whole team, including myself. We have also gone through the learning curve when it comes to the model design working with our local engineer. We have even involved the client in the process, which has been important to the management of the job. "They now have direct access to the model and can see our 'as dug and dozed' progress each day, which is a great management tool. "And if any changes to the model are needed, these can now be sent straight to the machine over the GPS network by our engineer, who doesn't even need to be onsite. "It has literally changed how we work, and I have already added Leica onto two of our smaller excavators used mainly on our house building projects." Where Courtney and his team have more recently built machine control into their projects, Cornish earthworks contractor KHC Groundworks & Civil Engineering was one of the first users to adopt the technology. I met with the team over four years ago at a dig day, so I was pleased to see the business has continued to invest with a new Hyundai HX220Al excavator and SMT tiltrotator greeting me at a complex house building project in St Erth, Cornwall. The excavator was joined by a Liebherr PR 716 dozer, also using machine control operated by Darryl, who first stepped into its original Hyundai machine four years ago using the Leica Geosystems CoPilot system to operate the machine and tiltrotator. Darryl, who is also a site manager, updated me on the company's
