KOREC £250K order for MVM Road Widening Contract

14 August 2008, 4:10pm

KOREC is delighted to announce that it has now supplied in excess of £250k worth of Trimble and Nikon surveying instruments for use on the MVM M1 Road Widening Contract.

The contract was awarded to Anglo-French joint venture MVM (Morgan-Est, VINCI Construction Grands Projets and Sir Robert McAlpine) in 2007 by the Highways Agency, and covers a 23km section of M1 between Junction 25 at Sandiacre and Junction 28 at Pinxton.

The Trimble instruments, which include five R8 GPS Receivers, two R6 GPS Receivers, two S6 Robotic Total Stations, an SPS851 Base Station and a subscription to Trimble’s VRS Now service, were selected for their flexibility and the ease with which they could be integrated.

“As the buyers for this contract, it was up to us to ensure that our surveyors and engineers were properly equipped to deal with the demands of this 23km site,“ explains MVM Land Surveyor Christopher Gill. “We were already familiar with the reliability of the Trimble kit and knew that the ability to easily upload our MX road design files by GENIO would quickly win over new users - we have ten people in the survey team and there’s a great deal of design information to handle!

Whilst the majority of our setting-out, as-built surveys and checking can be carried out using the R8 GPS receivers, the motorway does run through forest, heavily built up areas and under bridges which can compromise the satellite signal requiring us to switch to the S6 Robotic Total Stations. The real advantage for us here lies in the Survey Controller software which is common to both – it’s a short learning curve and if an engineer can use the GPS, he can easily switch to the S6 and vice versa.”

MVM opted for both a subscription to Trimble’s VRS Now Service and a fixed SPS851 Base Station on the site. “Again, this is all about flexibility,” explains Chris. “The VRS Now service gives our surveyors RTK on demand and is ideal for working fast. They don’t need to use a base station and can just arrive anywhere on the site, gain initialisation and begin working. Even previously inexperienced users like our site foreman are achieving good results working like this. Where the survey work is more detailed, we use the SPS851 station. Having a fixed base means that I can dial in and get access remotely. Even if I’m in London, I can log in and download files for checking. It’s also perfect for a site this length. By sending an RTK correction message directly over the internet, we can work anywhere on the 23km stretch without repeater radios. The SPS851 also enables us to use GLONASS satellites which improves lock and accuracy working in forest areas”

Chris concludes, “The Trimble instruments have provided the flexibility and the reliability that we needed to deliver for this contract and new users have been quickly won over by their ease of use. This has been backed up by great support from KOREC. We have a single point of contact for all our needs and are dealing with familiar faces – not a faceless person on the phone.”

www.korecgroup.com

Geo: International