Kemp Engineering
Kemp Engineering is the division of Kemp Chartered Land & Engineering Surveyors that conducts engineering surveys, site setting out, dimensional control, site engineering and deformation monitoring.
The engineering survey team is highly experienced and capable, having worked on some of the UK’s most prestigious and complex construction projects in Cornwall and across the South West.
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With experience ranging from the largest of civil projects to the smallest of domestic extensions at sites located across Cornwall, Bristol and throughout the South West, our team members are fully equipped with the latest surveying instruments and technology.
We are able to send drawings and data to and from the office at any time, and can set up a fully computerised office on site if required. This provides complete setting out and site engineering support for our clients, although we can also meet the requirements of smaller sites where we can visit for as little as an hour, as and when we are needed.
Setting Out
Whether you require a fully equipped office providing total setting out support for a considerable period of time, or just need an experienced site engineer to visit for a couple of hours, Kemp can meet the needs of your project.
Our team members are based throughout the South West and can travel to sites anywhere in the region or the UK generally if requested.
Calling on Kemp’s expertise can be the most cost-effective way of setting out a large, multidisciplined site that requires a considerable amount of engineering survey support. We can set up a fully equiped & computerised office on site, run by one of our senior engineering surveyors, which can then be staffed to meet the site programme. This has been done successfully on a number of major projects over the years.
If the scope of your site does not warrant the services of a full time engineer but still requires some setting out support, you can also benefit from our visiting setting out services. We can visit as and when you need us to, and provide you with the initial set out, help you catch up with setting out that may be falling behind schedule, or provide your inexperienced engineers with professional assistance, saving you time and money. We can also provide troubleshooting for setting out errors that may have halted progress.
Earthwork Volumes and Measurements
Kemp can provide a professional and efficient solution to any disputes you may have regarding expected ground conditions and earthwork quantities on sites anywhere in Cornwall, Devon, Bristol and throughout the South West region.
We can produce drawings showing the amount of cut or fill required and the site area can be divided and sub-divided to assist in planning projects where the construction process needs to be phased.
Measurement surveys can be undertaken with total stations on smaller projects whilst larger schemes can be surveyed with GPS or from the air with a UAV drone as can been seen in our news section.
With years of experience in providing cut and fill balance solutions, Kemp can provide you with the data needed to make even minor design alterations that can save you considerable sums in tipping and haulage. During and after construction we can provide you with a service that quantifies volumes left to move or the amount that has been disposed. Complex shapes and terraces cut into hillsides can be easily dealt with and pose no difficulties.
In the past we have computed volumes of a million cubic metres on schemes dating as far back as the early 1990s, with experience drawn from attending sites such as the A30 Mitchell and Summercourt by-pass and the archeological dig on the A27 Westhampnett by-pass near Chichester. We have also provided volume analysis for the Eden Project and the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) campus at Tremough, near Penryn.
Deformation Monitoring
The team at Kemp can resolve issues surrounding cracks, tilt / plumb and subsidence using various methods. We take detailed measurements and generate comprehensive data to determine what further action is needed, and our experience has seen us employ everything from crack monitoring to continuous remote observation around the clock, on sites throughout the South West.
During construction of the Eden project for example, microscopic flaws in some welds to the main arches of the biomes were detected and to ensure that these posed no structural risk, we monitored a load test using hanging water weights. Prisms were fixed to the arches at suitable locations and the resulting observations were downloaded and analysed instantly on site.
Machine Control
Kemp are skilled at working with the latest machine control technology and in forming the digital terrain models required. If you have any questions about our work please do not hesitate to contact our office.
TYPES OF MACHINE CONTROL:
1D One Dimension Machine Control: This is essentially a system that employs the same technology as the tried and tested rotating laser and sensor employed on most construction sites. A sensor is fitted to the blade of the dozer or arm of the excavator. The sensor picks up the rotating laser and LED lights indicate whether the blade should be raised or lowered. The driver is responsible for moving the blade to the correct levels, there is no automation of the controls.
1D Machine Control offers basic machine guidance. 1D Systems cover excavators, dozers and graders. It is claimed that 1D Solutions can offer up to a 10% increase in productivity per job as well as saving on the setting out of a large number of profiles and banksman time or requirement.
2D Two Dimension Machine Control: Using sophisticated sensor equipment, coupled with control box technology, 2D machine control builds on the benefits of 1D to bring you increased levels of guidance and control. 2D control increases accuracy and allows for more complicated cuts and grades to be achieved with more speed and less fuss.
Some of the other benefits of the 2D system are for example when coupled with a 360 excavator the driver can reference the bucket to say the edge of a plateau and then set a grade of say 1:3 to cut away from. He will then be able to see in the cab his bucket position as he trims the batter without rails or a banksman. The system will however require re referencing to either the plateau, a set out stake/datum or a laser when the machine tracks however. In this scenario it is important that the setting out surveyor communicates required batter angles or relative depths to the driver, or supervises grade and depth inputs.
3 Dimension Machine Control: 3D Solutions deliver the highest level of machine guidance benefits, using data provided from Global Positioning Satellites (GNSS) and working to accuracies of around 2cm. Robotic Total Stations in lieu of GNSS will allow accuracy to come to 5mm or better.
3D machine control relies upon a digital terrain model to be loaded to the machines computer. Using the positional information provided by the GNSS or Robotic Total Station coupled with the same sensors that the 2D system employs the bucket or blade position can be calculated in real time, compared with the digital design model on the computer to compute a depth of cut or fill. This can be displayed geographically for the operator or converted to signals that control the machines hydraulics.
THE REALITIES OF WORKING WITH MACHINE CONTROL
It is not cost effective or necessary for all machines to be equipped with machine control. If you consider bulk excavations where there are say two or three machines forming a road cutting, only one of the excavators will require machine control. This machine can excavate two pits or trenches and allow the other machines to bulk out between them. The excavator with machine control acts as the setting out engineer for the other machines to work too.
The reduction in setting out stakes make it very difficult for works managers and clients representatives to firstly visualise the works to be carried out and secondly for it to be checked that it has been carried out correctly. It is therefore often necessary to provide some basic or bulk setting out such as stakes at 40m intervals along significant proposed features such as centre lines or break lines with a simple amount to cut or fill written on them. This gives works staff a “feel” for the job at the start. Surveyors can also load DTMs to their survey equipment and accompany works staff on a site drive through whereby depths of cut and fill can be identified on the screen as they progress around the site. It often depends on the works staffs preferences.
The big savings with machine control are not so much with the setting out although there are undoubtedly savings here but in the accuracies and efficiencies that can be achieved by the machines. No longer is sub-base right at the pins and wrong in between, it is right everywhere and it was achieved quicker without interruptions from banksmen dipping or boning. Machines can be moved from area to area without the need for detailed setting out (although the models must be formed) hence giving a great deal more flexibility to work with sudden weather changes or design alterations preventing work continuing in the desired or planned location.
