Kelly & Shepherd is dedicated to industry best practice, as demonstrated on projects it has been involved in.
The company pioneered GPS-based machine control in NSW and we have continually looked at ways of improving our operations to reduce costs to ourselves and our clients, increase on-site safety, work more efficiently and ensure that the job is always done right first time, every time.
We have developed a number of new techniques on recent projects, and which we will be able to use in future projects for the benefit of our own operations and our clients; our focus on treating compaction as an integral part of the earthmoving process, and introduction of innovations to help achieve this is further evidence of our dedication to industry best practice.
As discussed earlier, the secret of compaction is in the mixture, the moisture level and layer thickness.
Our combination of GPS-based machine control and the Optimum Moisture Plough is an innovation developed by Kelly & Shepherd to achieve this - particularly with the tolerances we are working to (on a major landform such as this - a 44 ha site - they are very close).
We are achieving all this with an absolute minimal peg out - about 0.2% of normal. The whole job would have no more than 20 pegs.
This is removing the need for a surveyor there all the time; that is an important safety issue, because we are removing people from the ground.
The GPS machine control system is a great aid to productivity because we have our best communicators on the GPS-controlled equipment, with radio contact to all parties. Instead of looking at pegs all the time and just communicating with overseers, we are now placing information in real-time in front of whole team.
In some areas of the job are excessive wet spots. This combination of tools gives us the ability to lay out the material thinly, air it and dry it.
When the site is too dry in sections, our combination of scrapers and the moisture plough gives us the ability to mix and add moisture to 300 mm in depth. The plough is also useful in areas of truck-dumped dirt, where material has been placed more thickly or not mixed so consistently.
The other major issue with compaction is the QA side, ensuring that adequate compaction has been achieved. Our prototype GPS-based project monitoring system will be a tremendous tool in helping us as a contractor ensure that we don't miss anything, and for our clients and their consultants in checking the work we do.