Grading and Excavation Contractor

John Trotti

With this issue we start our Technology in Construction department , which will focus on the factors that are changing not only the tools of the trade but the processes underlying them.

Let’s take a look at just a few elements that have become embedded into what until recently has been a pretty conservative business:

Changes to the work environment
Changes in the workforce
Emergence of the computer as a multifunction tool
Shifting expectations of those filling the majority of slots in the workforce
The pressing need for greater and greater productivity

By and large each one in itself is ignorable, but as these factors aggregate, the impact becomes increasingly severe until … well, here we are in the midst of what amounts to a full-scale revolution that has taken many of us by surprise.

Coming to Grips with Change
I don’t know about you, but given a choice between putting my ignorance on display and sidestepping issues, my temptation has been to lean toward the latter. It’s what I refer to as my Mach-Zero (out of airspeed) tendency that has on occasion allowed me to cry out, “Lord, I don’t mind dying—only don’t let me look stupid in the process!”

Nor did this lunacy go away after I retired from combat flying. Indeed it got a whole new lease on life when I was surveying a piece of land I had bought while I was in the service. It was well after I had heard from others about the wonders of lasers, yet there I was dragging a chain and pounding tons of intermediate stakes. I mean, “What the heck?” I humored myself. “Lasers are dangerous.

“Besides, they’re expensive,” I pressed on with the litany of excuses to justify trudging up and down hills, whacking away at brush, in order to come up with numbers rarely consistent with those from before.

The truth was I didn’t understand lasers, how they worked, what made them superior to the way I was doing things, why they could make my life a lot easier, and most of all how they could make me a lot more productive. So rather than take the time to gain an understanding, I ignored them—took on a sort of “I’ll show them” attitude that, while it didn’t make me more productive, at least made me feel better.

It’s this kind of thinking the Technology in Construction department is here to change; thus I and those like me are the people for whom it is written. The idea is to go right back to square one on various topics where change has reared its ugly head and show what has changed, how it affects the way things are done, and why any of us should care.

The Program Plan
We intend to take on three separate topics at the same time, following each to some sort of logical conclusion. One of the first areas the department will delve into is machine control, because I’ve seen firsthand how people who could really prosper from its employment instead shy away without analyzing its potential. Ditto construction software routines designed to shed light on factors that many of us take for granted. The third segment will deal with equipment systems, starting with hydraulics.

Our approach will be to begin at the ground floor—in the case of machine controls, with the laser and global positioning systems that give rise to them—and proceed in building-block fashion to the very frontiers of their applications. En route we will employ a two-pronged approach involving both the print medium and our Web site where we will maintain an ongoing Technology in Construction section (www.gradingandexcavating.com/tech) segmented into specific subject areas. It’s a soup-to-nuts approach employing a variety of hyperlinks that will give you access to an unimaginable wealth of information relative to the subject at hand.

Finally, while we hope to leave no stone unturned in our subject presentations, we know this is a little far-fetched, so we’re counting on your guidance and your experience to make up for shortfalls. Please help us make Technology in Construction an all-hands effort in which we can all take pride.

Send John an Email

GEC - July/August 2006

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