Satellites bring savings to earthworks

Just the right amount

While the excavator and truck fleet is mixed on this project, the same cannot be said of Walters choice of dozer. The company has purchased four new Caterpillar D6TLGP tractors for this project with the aforementioned Leica Geosystems GNSS solutions. The D6T is seen as the ideal machine for Walters’ requirements and copes more than ably with assisting the excavators in obtaining the correct profiles and levels of dig. The dozers are used to clean up between each truck and profile the batters to the road.

“Once the dozer has the topography on its system, it is by far the quickest and safest way of surveying the site and ensuring we do not remove too much or too little material,” said Simon Maher, Walters project manager. “If we do have to remove more material than expected, we are able to quantify this almost immediately.”

With the muck shifting season coming to an end, Walters plans to have the majority of the bulk earthworks completed before the wet weather sets in. This will allow the smaller excavators to concentrate on the final removal of material and placing of fill material over the winter months.

“Working this way ensures we can keep the project moving along as it isn’t cost effective for anyone to be stripping soils through the rainy season,” concludes Maher.

The use of Leica Geosystems Machine Control solutions has significantly reduced the time in setting out on the A556 Knutsford to Bowden road improvement scheme, improving overall site health and safety and productivity.

Back to Reporter 74 article overview

Story: Satellites bring savings to earthworks
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Staying on track with GNSS solutions
Chapter 3: Just the right amount