Winning total construction services supported by surveying

Authors: Katja Omlor, Lidija Špiranec and Danuta Kusber 

Possessing a renowned reputation as a principal contractor earned over 65 years in business, Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd (Buckingham) offers high quality, multidisciplinary construction services throughout the United Kingdom (UK). Serving public and private clients, Buckingham has worked on a range of projects including railways and stations, sports stadiums and entertainment arenas, demolitions, land reclamations and more. 

This range of expertise is acknowledged by satisfied clients and professional organizations alike, and they have been recognized for excellence in design and construction through numerous accolades. A recent array of awards gives testament to this, including the Geotechnical, Large Project of the Year and Best Overall Project awards in 2020 from the West Midland Institution of Civil Engineers for their work on the Worcestershire Parkway railway station.  One key component of Buckingham’s success is an experienced and specialised team that can provide comprehensive construction solutions across sectors. Digital engineering and engineering survey solutions are an important part of their overall service offerings, with 22 employees dedicated to geomatics.

In addition to having a talented team of employees, Buckingham achieves their goal of offering quality and high value services through their strategic choice in partners. One of these key partners is Leica Geosystems as a surveying solutions hardware and software provider. 

Choosing the right partner and setting up winning survey solutions

The majority of survey engineers gain early exposure to Leica Geosystems’ equipment during their college or university studies. Retaining a strong impression as they progress in their professions, these specailsts often ask for the instruments they know will provide high quality and functionality. 

 This common scenario was also true at Buckingham, whose leadership decided to establish and develop their relationship with the Leica Geosystems brand through their local supplier, SCCS Survey Equipment Ltd, part of Hexagon.

Buckingham and SCCS worked together to set up the best combination of hardware to meet the contractor’s primary use cases and specialised needs. A major compenent of their field hardware includes the Leica TS16 Robotic Total Stations, which are used on most sites. Their hardware setup also consists of Leica Viva GS16 Smart Antennas and Leica LS15 Digital Levels. Additionally, they utilise specialist software such as Leica Geosystems 3D Machine Control when their subcontractors have this installed and the Leica GeoMoS monitoring solution. 

Tackling big monitoring projects

Buckingham’s work as the primary contractor on behalf of Transport for London (TfL) to complete upgrades at the West Hampstead train station demonstrates the way strong partnerships lead to success on big projects. The extensive project, which spanned from 2016-2017, involved updates, upgrades and new installations.

For this standout scenario, Buckingham received support from SCCS to design a fully autonomous track and structure monitoring scheme while they constructed temporary crane mats, deep drainage, piling works, under track crossing installations and the new train station itself. The project took place in a very confined space, bordering many third-party walls by less than one metre.

Therefore, monitoring the area was essential to provide reassurance to all parties impacted by the construction. Buckingham needed to demonstrate that they had assessed the risks of their work on the properties and infrastructure and established a suitable risk mitigation plan to monitor and react should any significant movements occur. The monitoring solution included 20 WiSen Tilt nodes and three Leica Nova TM50 I's measuring over 200 prisms every 30 minutes for nearly two years.

Triggers and scheduled reporting were set up from Leica GeoMoS, an automatic deformation monitoring system (with GeoMoS Monitor). Monitoring reports were delivered via text and email notifications to both project staff and the client survey manager. This enabled full visibility of the results and improved client relations overall. Savings provided by the monitoring solution became increasingly evident over the life of the project. There was a reduction in night shifts and fewer rail possessions, bringing minimal disruption to train transit.

Additionally, the monitoring solution removed the need for two surveyors onsite daily. This made the company’s decision to support the monitoring system setup easy, as they could clearly envision the cost savings. Ultimately, the lifecycle cost of monitoring for such a complex project was much lower with automated instrumentation.

Ensuring instrument security

While Leica Geosystems instruments provide cost saving benefits for monitoring and construction applications, their high value has also made them the target of theft. Wanting to help protect their customers’ equipment, investment and ability to operate, Leica Geosystems released the Leica LOC8 theft deterrence and location solution, available for all their total stations. 

Colin Sudds, Head of Geomatics at Buckingham, describes the decision to equip their total stations with LOC8: "As we have been working with SCCS for the last seven years (they manage our fleet of instruments) and as 99% of our engineering fleet comes from Leica Geosystems, when they recommended the LOC8 solution, we decided to give it a try. As a business, we had fallen foul of instrument thefts from our sites over the years, ultimately affecting our insurance premiums. Our Geomatics department made a commitment to the Board to reduce thefts by way of deterrent and increase recovery rates,” reflected Sudds.

LOC8 is helping them keep this commitment as they have gained the ability to lock devices, rendering them useless and valueless to thieves. Total stations can now be left unattended with absolute peace of mind, especially those installed for long-term monitoring purposes.

The LOC8 experience and security success

Buckingham has been using LOC8 for over two years. It lives up to their expectations because the setup and usage are simple, it can be tailored to specific needs and comes with reasonable tracking rates. It also enables location sharing via an easy-to-use web app. The company already experienced its first successes in terms of stolen instrument recovery. In July 2019, a Leica TS16, along with other equipment, was stolen from a site. Using the alert and LOC8 tracking information, the team was able to direct authorities to the TS16's location. Police were able to respond, obtain a search warrant and recover all the stolen equipment. They also uncovered a stash of equipment stolen from other building sites, plus several stolen cars. A total of four people were arrested.

In August 2019, another TS16 was stolen from the same site. "When the thieves were unable to use the TS16, they abandoned it in a wooded area. As soon as the police were able to respond, we directed them to the TS16's location and, with the help of a police dog, they recovered the stolen instrument," said Sudds. “More recently we have even successfully prosecuted one of the thieves! Instrument thefts fell in 2020 and recovery rates increased. What more is there to say?”

A complete package

Choosing the right equipment partner is crucial when it comes to delivering projects on time. The choice goes beyond just the hardware: software compatibility, service and support need to be considered too. The functional, reliable and modular package set up with SCCS helps Buckingham grow, master their projects and continue winning quality awards for collaboration, execution, sustainability and more.