Gps
Hi Cascade,
Our company uses the TopCon GPS system... we have a two man 'in-house' survey crew that was first (in the company) to get online with the system and test it's reliability. Everyone from top to bottom was EXTREMELY impressed with it's capabilities and accuracy after they got past the initial headaches of setting everything up and breaking it down every morning and evening. We have since invested in the fully automated grade control system for our new CAT D-6K for which I am the only operator. The rover allows the survey crew to work VERY efficiently,:cool2 as long as the young man who knows how it works holds on to it. As for the dozer, with patience and close attention to detail, me and my dozer (with GPS), an operator with a paddle pan and a laborer on a smooth drum roller can eliminate the need for a standard fine grading crew, EVEN the motor grader. I can consistently fine grade everything from pads to roads, parking lots, landscape areas and even offset the grade and make the cut for the curbing crew. First time 'viewers' complain about how slow you have to keep the machine going... but when you do the math, I can grade everything, to much tighter tolerances, in much less time than a standard crew with stakes and a good grade man can. Saves time... well, because it's faster, saves man hours due to the amount of people required, and saves fuel because fewer machines are needed and produces a nearly perfect finish product. Some people, like my super, think that a motor grader HAS to touch EVERYTHING for it to be 'done'... but noone has any complaints when the certification crews sends the shop an e-mail stating that my building pads are within +/-.05!! It CAN be done, with a DOZER... I am single handedly reducing the need for good grader operators in our company.
Before any grader operators jump down my throat, notice that I said REDUCING, not eliminating. There will always be a need for graders and their extremely talented operators:notworthy, and there are a good number of things that a grader can do the I cannot, however, the truth is that a good GPS equipped finish dozer like my D-6K can produce fine graded materials to tolerances that few grader hands have the patience to match.
I know that I have spoken alot more about GPS dozers than survey rovers... but the same is true with these devices. A well trained 'kid' (by some folks standards) can do alot of the same tasks that a seasoned survey crew with a total station can do IN WAY LESS TIME.
GPS doesn't MAKE you a good operator... it makes a good operator better, all you need is patience and attention to detail. On the same note... a GPS rover won't make a high school punk a certified land surveyor, however, in skilled hands, these things can do AMAZING things.
Thank you for reading rant on GPS:usa