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Trimble's PCS900 Paving Control System boosts productivity by 50%

Author andrew.haupt

Trimble’s PCS900 Paving Control System Boosts Productivity by 50%

PCS900 Paving Control System
Third-generation Paver Stanley MacAdam Meets Complex Design Requirements for Australian Car Park in Record time and at a Lower Cost with the Trimble Paving Control System

Overview

Customer Profile: Founded 40 years ago in Ireland, family owned and operated, Stanley MacAdam Company is a leading independent paving contractor with operations in Australia and Europe. Henry Stanley is the company’s co-owner and has been involved within the paving industry for more than 30 years. The company is renowned within the industry for delivering high quality construction techniques, while completing contracts on time and within budget, primarily contracting to governments departments, local authorities and construction companies.

Business Situation: Stanley MacAdam Company was contracted to complete paving work for an Australian based car park. The contract required a complex design with a grade which varied from +2% to -2% horizontally every 20 meters and from +2% to –2% longitudinally every 30 meters. The new parking area is roughly 50,000 square meters. The paving contractor was faced with meeting tight tolerances (+/- 10 millimeters); the design was further complicated by using a new dense recycled material as the road base.

Solution: Stanley MacAdam selected the Dynapac SD2500CS Paver with a high compaction screed. And, with the help of their local Trimble dealer, SITECH® Construction Systems, they chose the Trimble® PCS900 Paving Control System to complete the contract.

Benefits:

  • Achieve a complex design requirement
  • Achieve a 10 millimeter tolerance on the finished pavement layer
  • Achieve contractual fiscal conditions
  • Achieve paving accuracy and efficiency while reducing production time by 50%
  • Ability to achieve screed control and material compaction at reduced cost compared to traditional graders or pavers

 

Road Base Paving

Stanley MacAdam is extremely excited about the results of this car park project and the growing opportunities for road base paving with the Dynapac paver and Trimble paving system. The trend changing away from graders to the adoption of pavers that can significantly reduce material segregation and increase pavement tolerances due to high compaction screed control systems is vital in the context of pavement longevity.

Higher Material Yields and Cost Containment

Laying the high density recycled material also proved simple with the Trimble system.  The PCS900 system guided operators to pave to variable depths and slopes based on the 3D design. Even contending with high and low spots across the surface, operators reached the 2% grade in accordance with the design criteria more quickly. In essence, the system’s uncompacted surface designs guided the paver to automatically lay more material above low areas and less material in high areas, anticipating and eliminating waves that can occur after asphalt compaction.  

Automatic control of the screed gave operators the ability to achieve design levels earlier in the process while using the less expensive road base material. This is in stark contrast to conventional methods that often require re-working of the pavement to achieve design levels prior to the placement of the asphalt layer, ie asphalts are generally used as a corrector layer at this stage, thus making financial sense, as the asphalt layer can be up to eight times more expensive than other layers.

In this car park project, the Stanley MacAdam team maintained a 25 millimeter asphalt layer, with no overspills, which kept project costs down by thousands of dollars.

“We selected the Trimble PCS900 Paving Control System because we wanted to ensure that the road base material was laid accurately and within the tight tolerances,” said Henry Stanley. “This is the best way to ensure the spread rate of higher priced materials like asphalt are met.”

Looking ahead, Stanley MacAdam has plans to expand his use of the Trimble PCS900 paving system.

“This paving technology will transform the road construction industry,” said Henry Stanley. “This has the potential to reduce costs, achieve better quality pavements, plus with greater screed control and placement speed that can also meet complex design requirements, this system ultimately gives Stanley MacAdam a huge competitive advantage in securing future business.”