Drones and Dirt

If you are not utilizing the latest drone technology on your site work projects chances are you are probably leaving profit on the table. I can name hundreds of recent examples of how the small cost of a drone survey has saved and or made excavation companies thousands of dollars. From verifying a 10 year old topography on the bid documents, to measuring and proving an import or export quantity is correct. Drone technology has reached a cost effective level for the average dirt contractor and it is only going to get better.

Ways that a drone can provide value to a site work contractor:

• Site Topography Verification. You land a project and you go out to start moving dirt and suddenly you realize that your export job is actually an import job, what has gone wrong? A lot of projects are designed with site topography that can be up to 10 years old, completed with old photogrammetry technology that was plus or minus 1' or more. Or dirt from the site has been filled or borrowed sometime in the last 10 years. One way to verify site topography errors is with a quick drone survey.
• Stockpile Measurement for Quantity Verification. Planning to load from a stockpile on your next big import project? Are you paying the owner of the stockpile by the cubic yard? Are you getting paid on the job site by the cubic yard? Drones can create a highly accurate 3D model by measuring every square inch of the pile. Perform a follow up drone survey after the dirt has been hauled to verify the used quantity.
• Progress Topography for Progress Billings.One of the hardest things to prove in the dirt industry is how much dirt you have moved for that month in order to get an accurate payment from the owner. If you are on a long term project moving dirt over a few month period, you can survey the project every 30 days to document the amount of material moved every month. This helps with cash flow problems from under billing, or over billing upfront and losing cash flow on the back end of a project.
• Final Grade Certification after completion. Have you ever finish graded a project on your first mobilization only to return to the project a month later and have to regrade and move a foot or more of dirt from site footing spoils, utility spoils, etc left by other subcontractors. One of the hardest things to prove and get paid for is the regrading of already graded areas. Drones can document and provide proof that will get you paid for extra work. No more moving other subcontractors dirt spoils for free.

These are just a few examples of how drones can be utilized on a site work project, but really the uses are only limited to your imagination. Drones are just another tool that should be in your tool box, if utilized correctly they can help make your site work project run just a little bit smoother.

Ryan Lanser - Owner

SKYDIRT - Aerial Dirt Solutions

Phone. 559-593-9060