Topcon 3D excavator system reshapes Ireland's second-largest port

The team of Foyle & Marine dredging Company is steadily advancing a 17 million euro port embankment construction project located in Greencastle, Ireland. This project is also the first one that the company has taken on as the main contractor. At the very beginning of the project, the company immediately mobilized a fleet of excavators equipped with the Topcon 3D excavator system to enter the construction site. This marked an important and solid step forward for the company in the development of general contracting projects and 3D digital construction.

Greencastle, as the second largest white fish port in Ireland, has a large number of nearshore fishing boats coming and going for a long time. This project requires the construction of an arc-shaped rock embankment on the southwest side of the port entrance, aiming to provide a safer entrance for all vessels, including ferries from Greencastle to Magilligan, and offer better safety protection for ships within the port. At the same time, enhance the safety and travel efficiency of the port for all users, including tourists and leisure users who utilize the pontoon bridge facilities. The construction of the embankment will also significantly reduce the impact of the natural tidal current at the mouth of the Lough Foyle river on the port coast.

Foyle & Marine has started construction at the Queensport temporary wharf in Greencastle. The project involves laying approximately 200,000 tons of rock, along with a geotextile base and main protective armour ranging from 1 to 3 tons. It is planned to complete the entire construction work within eight months.

Ciaran Cunningham of Foyle & Marine said: Up to now, we have laid over 90,000 tons of stones. The work is progressing steadily as planned. All our equipment is performing extremely well. The Topcon 3D excavator system has been of great help to us, enabling us to complete the work more efficiently. Therefore, we are expected to finish the embankment construction before the end of the year, of course, provided that the weather permits.

The Topcon 3D excavator system adopted in this project is a full demonstration of the perfect integration and application of modern GNSS technology and high-precision sensor technology with excavators. Through the matching Angle sensor, the real-time operation posture information of the excavator can be obtained. GNSS technology introduces the precise position information into the system in real time, combines it with the construction design data, and presents it intuitively on the display in the cockpit. By precisely guiding the operator to carry out the construction operation, it eliminates the situation of relying on blind guessing and feeling for operation in traditional construction operations. A new operation mode has been realized to achieve the desired depth and slope in one step, and the underwater dredging is equally precise and error-free. The Topcon 3D excavator system can achieve underwater construction area calibration and can carry out dredging operations completely in accordance with the grid requirements of the design. The completed construction area is displayed on the color-rendered completion drawing, making positioning and accuracy clear at a glance and avoiding missed excavations and repetitive operations.

The Topcon 3D excavator system mainly consists of two parts: the GNSS reference station and the excavator installation components. The GNSS reference station is responsible for providing real-time centimeter-level positioning accuracy for the entire system. The installation components of the excavator consist of GNSS antennas, radio antennas, Angle sensors, GX control display screens and MC-X controllers.

When the system is working, the GR-i3 receiver and radio installed on the excavator body obtain the real-time three-dimensional position of the excavator by receiving GNSS signals and differential signals sent by the base station. Then, combined with the Angle values measured by the sensors installed on the connecting rods of the excavator's large arm, small arm and bucket, the precise three-dimensional coordinates of the bucket are calculated in real time. The coordinate information is then transmitted back to the display installed in the cab. The system, by comparing the digital three-dimensional design model with the current position information of the bucket, indicates the relative position between the actual bucket and the target working surface in various ways such as analog graphics, numerical values, and sound signals, guiding the operator to carry out precise construction.

The system is equipped with a construction area calibration function, allowing for dredging operations to be carried out strictly in accordance with the grid requirements of the design. The constructed areas are displayed on the colored completion drawings, making the positioning and accuracy clear at a glance and avoiding missed excavations and repetitive operations.

Seamus Bovaird, the secretary of the Greencastle Port User Group, is also looking forward to the early completion of the project. He said, "Seeing workers and machinery busy at Queensport is something we have been looking forward to for years." Since the initial work on embankment protection was halted in 2008, many changes have taken place in the fishery, including some negative ones, of course. However, the port remains the core of the local community. The further development of the port will create more job opportunities to make up for the loss of workers in the fishing industry.

Based on the GX control panel that comes with the Topcon 3D excavator system, the driver can intuitively grasp the current working situation and quality through the screen in the cab. There is no need for auxiliary surveyors to repeatedly measure the stacking position and slope of the embankment's armor. At the same time, it also ensures the height of the embankment, which reduces the occurrence of pauses and safety accidents during the construction process. Especially during underwater dredging operations, the advantages of the Topcon 3D excavator system are more prominent. The excavation process no longer requires auxiliary water depth measurement to confirm the excavation situation of the underwater dredging area, greatly reducing the cost of hiring auxiliary personnel, improving production efficiency, and making this project a model for similar projects.

In addition, the project also utilized the Topcon digital construction cloud management platform - the Sitelink3D system. Sitelink3D is a complete digital construction site management system that integrates data control, machine tracking, and reporting systems into a single solution. Through the Sitelink3D digital construction management platform, Users can achieve remote machine support, 3D digital model and construction operation file transmission and viewing, providing powerful digital tools and means for real-time project management. Different operators can share construction data in real time, avoiding the occurrence of repeated construction, missed excavation and incomplete construction.

For a long time, Foyle & Marine dredging Company has been undertaking projects as a professional subcontractor. The high-quality implementation and completion of this project marks that Foyle & Marine dredging Company has officially become a member of the main contractors. Ciaran finally introduced, "Based on the Constructionline Gold certification, ISO 9000, 14001 and 45001 and other standard certifications obtained by the company, we have the ability and confidence to bid for more large-scale construction projects as the main contractor."