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Instead, Sorrell and his team were able to stake 30 buildings a day. GPS was also used to calculate volume quantities of rock blasted from the site in real time. At the beginning of the project, the team did a topographic survey and marked the volume to a specific elevation. At the end of each week, they could quickly recalculate to the benchmark elevation and, in about 15 minutes, know exactly how much earth was moved.

"We used to have to go back to the office and download the topographic information to a CAD program to calculate volumes. Now we do it on site," Sorrell states. "Even better, we can add more points to an existing volume calculation and recalculate, if necessary — something we were never able to do with conventional survey solutions."

In addition, Sorrell was able to use the GPS900's Nearest Point feature to quickly verify utility locations in each subdivision. The feature automatically looks at all the points yet to be staked out, calculates a distance from the current position to all remaining stakeout points, then selects the shortest distance to the next stakeout point.

"On this project, we checked 100 sewer laterals along the right-of-way for the county inspector, and it took 15 minutes. I just walked to the point, hit one button and it quickly read how close I was to the intended point," says Sorrell. "We use this feature daily. Its compatibility with CAD saves a few steps because there is no need for data conversion.

"Bottom line, GPS is a critical resource to our company," he adds. "We can't afford to do business without it, and fortunately, it's now available at a price point we can support with functionality that exceeds our expectations." 