Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/726012
EquipmentWorld.com | September 2016 45 I t's hard to believe, but the use of GPS in heavy construction is now more than 15 years old. Mike Momrow, survey manager for the Rifenburg Companies in Troy, New York, was present at its genesis, purchasing and field- ing a GPS machine control system in 2000 from a company called Geologics. "Unfortunately, they didn't stick around very long," Momrow says. But today, Rifenburg has about 60 rovers in the field and 30 to 35 machines running GPS applications, depending on the mix of jobs. "Rifenburg doesn't use GPS, we run on GPS," says Momrow. "We use it for everything – for grade control in dirt, concrete paving, asphalt paving, motor graders, excavators – you name it, we use it." And they use both Topcon and Trimble products. "Different crews like different systems," he says. The company's crews have also figured out how to use total stations in conjunction with GPS. Depend- ing on the job, they may do the bulk earthmoving with a dozer and then set up a motor grader with a robotic total station to complete the finish grading. Can't afford not to Before GPS, every job had its own foreman, laborers and a survey crew, says Momrow. Today, one foreman can cover three or four dirt operations and the survey crews are almost non-existent. "That has enabled us to lower all of our bid prices, because we're cutting as many as three to five people out of each job," he says. "And the operators are no longer waiting for a grade check. They have real live grade checking, all the time…all day, every day." In addition to machine control in earthmoving, Rifenburg started using GPS technology for paving in 2004. By 2006, it was using GPS on its milling applications as well, Momrow says, and it is still one of the few companies in the country to have finessed this application. Most recently, the company has invested in the latest GPS tech- nology – the "mast-less" machine control dozers that use inertial measurement units (IMUs) mounted to the body of the machine, rather than antennae on the blades. It has purchased a Caterpillar D5K run- ning Topcon's 3D-Max system, as well as several Komatsu D51i intel- ligent machine control dozers. Momrow is bullish on the new, IMU-driven dozers, calling them the best grading dozers he's seen. But, he cautions contractors to make sure they're guaranteed good support in the field before purchasing these or any other technology systems. The biggest challenge While power users like Momrow continue to push the abilities of every new system, one significant headwind remains. GPS/GNSS 101 | by Tom Jackson | TJackson@randallreilly.com THREE VIEWS ON THE PAST, PRESENT, AND RAPIDLY EVOLVING FUTURE OF GPS IN HEAVY CONSTRUCTION Part 4 of a 4-part series Technology is advancing to the point where almost everything you do on the site will be connected wirelessly. Illustration courtesy Trimble