Accupoint helps construction firms upgrade to GPS: global positioning systems make industry more productive.

• Author: West, Gail
• Position: BUILDING ALASKA - Industry overview

The future of construction grade control has arrived, and it has come in the form of global positioning systems.

Transmissions of statistics from a satellite to GPS-enabled motor graders, bulldozers or excavators provide today's construction industry with immediate and accurate grade control information--information that helps complete projects more quickly and at significant savings.

"This technology has been accepted in the Lower 48 for about five years longer than we've had it here in Alaska," said Mike Gray, general manager for Accupoint Inc., an Alaska surveying and construction supply company. "They've found big cost savings with it.

"Construction projects don't need to rely as heavily on the physical presence of surveyors," he continued. "Once the data points are set, equipment operators can run their machinery to those points instead of to survey stakes."

Accupoint carries the Trimble line of global positioning system equipment among its variety of products. That GPS system, according to Gray, makes construction companies that use it more productive and more versatile.

Gray said an engineer makes a computer model of a final project, such as a road project--positioning, elevations, etc.--and the bulldozer operator sets his blade to those points. That tells the operator whether he needs to cut or fill to reach the right elevation.

"Wilder is using the GCS 900 Site Control System," Gray said. "They have one on a dozer and one on an excavator, and they're using it to build the road and the centerlines, dig the waterline and so on."

Gray added that Wilder was running its GPS system from a reference station in Anchorage, which is one of several across the state that Accupoint provides for its customers.

"The satellite is sitting more than 12,000 miles above us. It's sending information to the reference station, and broadcasting the corrections to the equipment once a second," Gray said. "The receiver takes that information, and tells the equipment whether the operator needs to make cut or fill corrections, or corrections to the alignment."

Darrin Hansen, Wilder Construction's general superintendent on the Abbott Loop to Bragaw Road project, said Wilder is able to supplement information from their surveyors to maintain control in the field. "So we know where we are and where we're going," he said.

"We're using this technology on several projects now," he continued. "We have the same type of equipment on Fort Richardson, on the Wasilla...