Construcarr is a successful Mexican construction company that has quickly become a leader in highway construction and the production of high-quality asphalt concrete. The company, Construcciones y Carreteras S.A. de C.V. (Construcarr), was founded by Ricardo Luna, a leading engineer with more than 35 years of experience in the construction and building industry.
Over the past several years, Construcarr has consistently demonstrated that it is on top of the field in terms of delivering superior highway and asphalt work. The organization has earned an ISO 9001 certification and has embraced other processes and technology that can deliver increased accuracy and productivity gains on the job. As part of the company’s ongoing effort to raise its level of service, Construcarr purchased the Trimble GCS900 3D Grade Control System supplied by Sitech de Occidente, the local Trimble-authorized technology dealer. The Trimble machine-control technology was then used on a four-lane expansion project for the Guadalajara-Colima highway.
Guadalajara is Mexico’s second most important city and Manzanillo is one of the most important commercial and tourist seaports of the west coast of Mexico on the Pacific. The expansion of the Guadalajara-Colima highway is projected to have a significant impact for the community. Experts estimate the four-lane expansion will reduce transit time across the city and neighboring communities by 40 minutes.
With support from Sitech de Occidente, Construcarr installed the Trimble GCS900 3D Grade Control System with Universal Total Station configuration on two of its motor graders. The system uses a digital terrain model (DTM) that is prepared using Business Center-HCE powered by Trimble. Business Center-HCE is a versatile software solution for data preparation used for machine control. After converting the data, the Construcarr team transfers the design to the in-cab control box. The information is then used to automatically move the motor grader blade to the correct grade.
The Universal Total Station takes as reference at least two surveying control points to determinate its position (north, east and elevation). The station then connects to the machine through the radio and sends the exact position of the target. The GCS900 software that runs on the CB430 in-cab control box, then calculates the blade position to millimeter level accuracy. This reading is then compared to the design to move the blade automatically to the correct position and grade.
Trimble machine control eliminates the need to stake and resurvey positions on the ground. Instead, Construcarr operators were able to achieve finished grade to millimeter accuracy with fewer passes and less machine run time. In fact, the highway project requires two fewer people to survey with Trimble machine control when compared to traditional staking and grading methods.
The accuracy obtained with Trimble machine control based on design was twice (plus or minus 5 millimeters) as accurate, as compared with the traditional methods. On this project increased job site productivity meant the time needed for fine grading was reduced greatly, cutting fuel and operating costs.
