3D HIGHWAY


Highways England benefit from integrated machine control strategy


14


MAKING THE T


he future use of plant and equipment on UK road construction is already shaping up in 3D, thanks to the use of integrated surveying and machine


control techniques on the A1 widening project from Leeming to Barton.


Commissioned by Highways England, the once 19.3 km stretch of dual carriageway is being transformed into a three-lane motorway, complete with a 15km local access road. Tasked with delivering the project is the A1M2 consortium, a joint venture between main contractors Carillion and Morgan Sindall.


Since the project first broke ground, (due to complete in Spring 2017), plant hire specialist, Potter Plant, has been responsible for delivering all of the earthworks, using Trimble 3D machine control from SITECH UK and Ireland.


With up to 40 pieces of equipment in operation at any one time, the project boasts the largest and most integrated 3D enabled mixed fleet ever seen on a road job in England. Together with Trimble enabled A1M2 surveyors, the very latest in 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) techniques has been used on the job, to ensure complete traceability of the key earthworks stages of the project.


The task at hand is significant, with 1,600,000m3 earthworks excavation and 1,570,000m3


of of deposition


spread across the site followed by the exacting placement of 1,000,000 tonnes of dry stone to form the base for 650,000 tonnes of pavement.


For Highways England project manager, Thomas Howard, the importance of the lessons learnt from the use of technology on the project, can’t be


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