St. Kilda Development - Cogswell Surveys Ltd - Topcon HiPer II

Cogswell Surveys Ltd / Topcon HiPer II

St. Kilda development surveyor Pete McLachlan from Cogswell Surveys Ltd has been using Topcon gear for the last two years; lately the robust HiPer II receiver which was purchased specifically for the St. Kilda project by developer Matt Smith, in conjunction with a base station.

Pete believes that without the combination of Topcon technology onsite – Topcon machine control software on civil works company C&R Development’s excavator and dozer, as well as his own HiPer II rover – detailed aspects of the St. Kilda site, such as the wetlands, simply couldn’t have been completed.

“The intricacies of the wetland areas, in terms of shapes and angles that are part of the overall design, have created a lot of difficult problems to be solved. It’s still down to the skills of the operators on the machines of course, but the Topcon gear is a tool that gives operators the ability to get everything right first time.

The HiPer II receiver allows Pete to capture survey data onto an SD card which he’s then able to hand to the excavator or bulldozer operator to be uploaded to the Topcon machine control equipment, giving them their work parameters.

“For me this is a fantastically quick way of working as I’m only required on site every few days and can work on other projects simultaneously. There’s also a pretty obvious health and safety benefit to not having the surveyor on the work site among moving machinery each day.

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“And because we have a permanent Topcon base station set up onsite, I can click it on and go; the Topcon gear speeds everything up and just makes everything so much more straightforward.”

In addition to the arrive-and-go nature of using the HiPer II, Pete is also impressed with the durability of the receiver, which boasts a lightweight magnesium alloy constriction, a clear LED panel which is easy to read even in direct sunlight, voice status prompts meaning Pete isn’t constantly needing to look at the receiver, and cable-free Bluetooth wireless capability.

St. Kilda developer Matt Smith’s decision to invest in both the rover unit and the base station came about as a result of talking to Synergy Positioning about solutions that could improve both the speed and accuracy of the project’s ground works.

“At the end of the day, the longer project infrastructure work takes, the longer it is before we can start selling sections. The combination of the Topcon HiPer II and machine control systems have sped up the build process and made things a lot more straightforward.

“As soon as we got both systems up and running I knew we’d made the right decision. From a construction monitoring point-of-view, having our own base and rover system is ideal. It’s an intuitive system to use too; I don’t possess any expertise as a surveyor but even I can navigate my way ‘round it if I need to.

“In saying that, I don’t see the receiver very often. It’s my toy but it’s always in the back of Pete’s ute,” Matt laughs.

With speed and accuracy in mind, Cambridge’s combined St. Kilda build teams have successfully integrated Topcon solutions into the construction process to help meet the varied goals of this big project.