3 PRIMARY ADVANTAGES OF USING DRONES DURING PRECONSTRUCTION

Apr 4

Some of you may already be flying a drone over your worksite during the preconstruction phase and have recognized how beneficial it is to have incorporated this into your standard process. Some of you have not. We’ve identified a few key reasons why everyone should.

RESOURCE ALLOCATION

It’s important to be able to take a visual bird’s eye view of the preconstruction project site to determine the optimal scheduling of employees, the mobilization of equipment/machinery and overall planning, so you don’t waste resources. Flying the drone this early on will pay off in dividends.

SITE VERIFICATION & PROGRESS

Site verification is when you compare your takeoff estimations with what is out there on the job site. Double-checking your quantities is an excellent way to verify the surveyor’s results. There are times when the plan elevation differs from the actual terrain. In those cases, it can result in either the need to export a lot of extra dirt that was unplanned for, or a shortage of fill that will need to be purchased and imported.

The drone can be flown during preconstruction and throughout the project’s lifecycle to track job progress as well as to manage the site. As a result of the photogrammetry produced by the drone, updating the project manager or owner of the site progress becomes very easy.

Flying the drone or doing a manual topo with GPS is advantageous when it comes to seeing how many trees were cut down or how many more may need to be cut down. Tree clearing can get expensive especially if the stumps need to be removed and taken off-site. Take note that this cost is sometimes ignored or underestimated and can have a significant impact on your budget.

STOCKPILE MANAGEMENT

Once you have stripped or scraped the topsoil, you should fly the drone again to re-run your volumes. As you know, having a precise number on your topsoil stockpile is extremely important. Factoring in whether you are going to end up with a surplus is key to planning how you will manage it. Can it be used elsewhere on the job site? Can you export it and use it on a different site? Perhaps selling it to another contractor is the way to go? Along with topsoil, you could also manage any stockpile such as spoils from a cut area and use it for fill areas. Flying a drone during the preconstruction stage also allows for ordering materials at appropriate times. For example, if space is limited on a job site, not all materials will fit at once on the site, therefore making ordering materials a bit more challenging. Using the information from the drone will allow you to notify the Super when the next set of materials should be ordered. These are all options for your consideration and, without flying the drone, you don’t get a proper mosaic of the site’s pre-existing conditions.

Using MASS data helps you stay on track and effectively plan your strategies for getting your project started during the preconstruction phase. ECI Technologies has several tools, including the usage of drones! Contact us with any questions!