All-Ways Excavating & Construction uses a digital construction platform for quality control in 60-unit residential development in Oregon
All-Ways Excavating & Construction is a general contractor located in Oregon that serves both small and large commercial customers. Recently, the company started to focus on integrating digital constructionDigital construction, also known as construction technology or construction 4.0, refers to the use of digital tools and … More technologies into its processes to improve efficiency and enable its teams to scale without compromising on quality and delivery.
Main benefits
Significant time savings especially on measurements in the field
Enhanced quality control
Increase in internal collaboration
Accurate measurements of earth moved and materials
Background
All-Ways Excavating & Construction is a Native-American and Alaskan-Indian owned general contractor located in Oregon that serves both small and large commercial customers. With over 15 years of experience in the field, the company offers a wide range of services including general contracting, estimating and consulting, excavation, civil constructionCivil construction is a branch of engineering that involves the design, construction, and maintenance of the built envir… More, and more.
Adopting digital construction software to improve efficiency
More recently, the company started to focus on integrating digital constructionDigital construction, also known as construction technology or construction 4.0, refers to the use of digital tools and … More technologies into its processes to improve efficiency and enable its teams to scale without compromising on quality and delivery. These efforts included recruiting new team members, one of whom is Aaron Dort, a Grade Control Manager and drone pilot who is in the process of building a GPS/drone program and implementing digital constructionDigital construction, also known as construction technology or construction 4.0, refers to the use of digital tools and … More technology across the lifecycle of the company’s construction projects.
As part of this initiative, Dort evaluated a number of construction data analytics platforms before selecting DatuBIM – Datumate’s cloud-native SaaS 4D infrastructure data analytics platform – as the platform of choice. Dort worked with DatuBIM in the past and decided that it would be the best fit for All-Ways growing digital constructionDigital construction, also known as construction technology or construction 4.0, refers to the use of digital tools and … More needs.
“It quickly became clear that for the money and effort required to start up the program, the information we can get out of it is just really, really worth it,” said Dort.
The company is currently using DatuBIM on four different projects with plans to expand in the near future.
Aaron Dort
Grade Control Manager and drone pilot at All-Ways Excavating
60-unit residential development project in Oregon City, Oregon
In the case of a 60-unit residential development project in Oregon City, Oregon, where All-Ways is doing all of the sitework, utilities and road preparation, Dort conducted the first drone flight in September 2022.
This initial footage was taken after the project began, which means that Dort is able to easily compare the time required onsite with and without the platform. “We had already started work on this project before we introduced the platform,” said Dort. “There’s a specific area of the site where the biggest fill for the project was needed. We needed to track the progress of that fill because we had to make a decision about whether we could complete the sitework with material we had onsite or needed to bring in extra material for this. The first time I went out to check the progress of this, I had to do a topo on foot and it took me about half a day to do that – just that one part of the site. After that, we started using the drone and the platform. All I needed was 20 minutes to fly it and I didn’t just get the information about that small part of the site – I got all the information I needed for the entire site!”
Main use cases
Since then, Dort and his team has been using DatuBIM to closely track and monitor the quality and progress of the Holmes Lane project. Here are some examples of such use cases:
- Tracking of objects that may result in change orders such as a pile of boulders that needed to be removed. The ability to measure this and keep of record of these measurements was really helpful for the team.
- The ability to quality control the work of sub-contractors. For example, in the case of a pond design, the platform was used to make sure that everything was in the right place before the sub-contractor actually poured the concrete.
- Identification of potential deviations. For example, in the case of a road corner, the team could identify that the road would need to be cut back prior to the work being done. This eliminated any surprises and prevented the need for future rework.
- Visual progress tracking using the diff tool for the easy comparison of progress between two dates.
Main benefits of using a digital construction platform
According to Dort, the main benefit of using a digital construction platformDigital construction platforms are used to streamline and optimize construction processes using digital technology. They… More is the ability to get an end-to-end view of a project and to more easily and accurately quality control multiple moving parts in different projects.
It also really helps to give us transparency internally. We used the platform in our status meetings and it really helps to be able to show the team a visual representation of progress and potential issues.
Another really powerful use case is being able to export information including the coordinates of specific objects such as manholes from DatuBIM to a GPS or measuring device. This information can then be used by surveyors to check and verify alignments of these objects in the field.
Leveraging Oregon’s Real-Time GNSS Network (ORGN) to increase accuracy
In order to obtain footage of construction sites, All-Ways is currently using a Phantom 4 RTK drone and connecting to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Real-Time GNSS Network (ORGN). This is a network of continuously operating GNSS reference stations that provide real-time kinematic (RTK)RTK is a technology to correct drone location data in real-time. It needs a fixed base station with an uninterrupted con… More correctors to field GNSS users over the internet. By connecting to this network, Dort is able to achieve higher levels of accuracy in the field.
Added value
- Significant time savings especially on measurements in the field
- Enables cross-referencing with GPS and onsite alignment
- Enables accurate measuring of earth moved and materials
- Helps detect potential mistakes before they become bigger issues
- Provides easy way of quality controlling sub-contractor work
Next steps
Currently, Dort is the only drone pilot at All-Ways and the only employee who is fully utilizing the DatuBIM platform. As the company continues to expand, the goal is to teach project managers to work with the platform and to use the platform from start to finish on new projects. This will help to farther reinforce the company’s reputation as a market leader using digital constructionDigital construction, also known as construction technology or construction 4.0, refers to the use of digital tools and … More technology to track and monitor progress and increase collaboration with stakeholders across the entire project lifecycle. In this manner, All-Ways will be able to boost efficiency, do more with existing resources and complete high-quality projects – on time and within budget.