Irish Contractor Stays Ahead Of Competition With Trimble
Irish contracting firm Maveric has steadily grown since the company was founded in 2004. Thanks to smart business decisions, one of which was the early adoption of Trimble grade control and positioning technology. Its early choice of Trimble has given Maveric a head start over the competition, winning the company some notable civil engineering contracts.
Business Challenge
Maveric Contractors embraced the latest in GPS and machine control technology from the very start of the company. The productivity and efficiency gains have helped the company win some of the most complex projects in and outside of Ireland. Helping the company stay up-to-date is longtime partner SITECH® UK and Ireland.
Solutions
- Trimble® GCS900 Grade Control System
- Trimble Earthworks Grade Control Platform
- Trimble total stations (S3 and S7)
- Trimble SPS985 GNSS Smart Antenna
- Trimble SPS850 and SPS851 Modular GPS Receivers
- Trimble SCS900 Site Controller Software
- Trimble Business Center
Benefits
- Increase in productivity on complex tasks
- More efficient use of project teams
- Improved accuracy and safety
Maveric Contractors Ltd. of Galway, Ireland was started by Maurice McNamara, Managing Director and owner of the firm. At the company’s inception in 2004 McNamara made the strategic choice to adopt the latest in machine control, machine guidance and robotic surveying and modelling solutions as well as project planning and site positioning technologies. “When we founded the company, we invested a lot of time and effort in researching the absolute best in construction technology, as we knew it would set us apart from the competition. Little did we know that our competitors would still be playing catch-up now, because the Trimble technology has become such an integral part of our company’s DNA. It is contributing fundamentally to us winning business.”
Maveric was founded as a general contractor in the housing and industrial development markets. The company boomed during its first four years and managed to grow even in the recession years by moving part of its activities overseas to stronger markets. From 2012 to 2016, Maveric continued to concentrate on the Irish and UK market while diversifying its activities, moving into road construction, pipeline, mining and quarry operations, data center and pharmaceutical facility construction. Later, the company again expanded to mainland Europe, moving into Germany in 2016 and France in 2020. The activities now also include drone mapping and surveying. The team of the mid sized contractor consists of 65 staff, and grows to around 90 to 100 depending on the season.
Maveric began its partnership with Trimble in 2004. During the technology investigation process, the team from the Irish contractor visited a field product development showcases in Marseille (France) and later on the Trimble Dimensions user conference in Las Vegas (USA). Assisted by Trimble dealer SITECH UK & Ireland, the contractors experienced first-hand the benefits Trimble technology could bring. Nowadays the Irish contractor has a fleet of Cat earthmoving machines, mainly excavators , dozers, and backhoe loaders. Exceptions to the Cat rule are a number of Mercedes-Benz Suction excavator trucks. Depending on the nature of the assignment the Cat equipment is kitted out with Trimble machine control systems (GCS900 or Trimble Earthworks).
End-to-end solutions
Next to machine control, Maveric makes extensive use of Trimble total stations (S3 and S7), SPS985 GPS rover units and SPS850 and SPS851 base stations for site surveying and setting out. On the software side, Maveric uses SCS900 site controller software for survey workflow management. Trimble Business Center is at the heart of Maveric’s projects, as the contractor uses the tool to convert data it gets from the client to the format that works with the Trimble equipment and to create information, 3D models and designs for the various teams to work with. During the course of the project, Trimble Business Center is fed with the relevant surveying information, in turn feeding the integrated information to the teams and systems. After finishing the project, Maveric uses the system to export data in the format required by the client.
“As a company we have really developed with the Trimble product offering”, McNamara states. “We have seamless interaction between the Trimble base stations, GCS900, Trimble Earthworks, loggers and rovers. The Trimble solutions really offer an end-to-end solution: all of the Maveric team members have developed with the Trimble product offering, from the off-site 3D designer to the site engineers and machine operators.”
“SITECH has been with us all of the way”, says McNamara. “From the very beginning they have been our partner in training, installation, and product support. They help us keep the competitive edge and get the maximum out of the Trimble technology. The training and tutorial program offered by SITECH makes sure everyone is up to speed. Our next step now is to migrate completely to a truly comprehensive platform: Trimble Earthworks, which is also even more intuitive.”
Moneymaker
“By far the best tools to save time and lessen the management burden, have been the machine control systems,” McNamara. “They give so much control that they really decimate the number of errors and the amount of overbreak in rock breaking. The tools help us control the overbreak to within around 10 mm on a trench or foundation pad, depending on the rock formation. Seeing as rock extraction is really expensive, it helps control the costs.”
“And GCS900 has vast safety advantages as well. One of the other features of GCS900 that we use a lot is ‘avoidance zones’. This helps our machine operators steer clear of trouble when excavating around live services,” McNamara adds. “Another one of our favorites is the ‘record point’ feature, because it lets the operator record points from the cab. Which means that there is no longer a need to have a site engineer enter a potentially dangerous or confined space to take exact measurements of for example a steep pit. That is all done through the GPS on the boom of the excavator.”
700 underground live services
Maveric is engaged in the construction of a new microchip manufacturing plant in the vicinity of Dublin. On this 9.5-million-euro project, the contractor is putting a large part of its Cat and Mercedes-Benz fleet to work getting the site set up for vertical construction. “The main challenge we have to overcome on this site is that we have to cross over or under approximately 700 underground live services as we’re laying a 1.3 km long industrial water main pipeline,” says McNamara.
“This is where Trimble Earthworks comes into play. We upload all the known service locations from previous as-built drawings or trial pits onto the Trimble Earthworks model. That provides the real-time accurate location of critical services to the operator. Then, the operator also rerecords the existing service, to update the as-builts, and also the trench profile and location of the new service laid. Our customer is extremely conscious of safety and liability issues, so this way of collecting and archiving as-built data provides peace of mind for any future work, thanks to Trimble Earthworks.”