It is not every day that a heavy equipment foreman identifies a problem costing his company profit and then invests his own money to find a solution, but that is precisely what happened in the case of Matt Schwarz's new Grade Stake Pro application.

Schwarz grew up on a farm in eastern Iowa, where he operated heavy machinery. He went on to a career in law enforcement. After becoming a detective, Schwarz found his calling in forensics, working in management as a consultant and SME for cities like Houston, Texas, and St. Paul, Minn. There, his reputation grew for identifying and removing the risk of human error from critical processes. Today, he consults with local, state, and federal law enforcement to improve the accuracy of their labs.

Photo courtesy of Grade Stake Pro

Approximately 10 years ago, fondly recalling his days working with heavy equipment, Schwarz joined a local company to fill his summers. Most of his projects involve integrating with existing infrastructure where every .04 ft. to .08 ft. matters.

"There are two types of operators: those who have had a costly grading error and those who will," said Schwarz.

One such error that came to his attention involved five blocks of reconstruction work. The concrete crew identified the prep as .083 ft. low on rock, which cost more than $16,000 to remedy.

Operators must regularly get out of their cabs to manually check grades to avoid such errors. Schwarz observed unnecessary delays as operators struggled to complete the math required for these checks confidently. Between the complexity of the math and the operator's skill, Schwarz identified a problem he could solve.

As a result, the Grade Stake Pro application is a new tool that lowers the risk of human error when manually checking grades. The application's ease of use also reduces the time operators are out of their cabs. To use, an administrator sets up each project with critical specifications. The user selects the project and enters the stake values. The application returns all the layer values the operator will need for the remainder of the project. Jot these values on the back of the stake, and no one needs to recalculate at that stake for the remainder of the project.

GPS has revolutionized the construction industry, yet its vertical limitations still require manual grade checks to achieve accuracy. The standard vertical error of GPS is around .0833 ft. to .1405 ft. Failure to account for blade ware, signal interference and base pole install errors can compound the inaccuracies. Working around existing infrastructure, this is not accurate enough on its own.

The feedback from testing has been positive.

An operator still in his apprenticeship used the application to run a dozer to prep a 1,700-ft. two-lane stretch with a roundabout. After timing of the rock, there were only four skid-steer buckets of material left over.

Another foreman said, "This app is perfect for guys in their first five years on the job. It is another tool they can use to get their grades spot-on. I remember how often I got yelled at for the wrong calculations when I was checking grades in my first few years. As a foreman, I can trust that my guys now have a tool to backstop them until they are masters. I wish I had this early in my career."

For more information, visit www.gradestakepro.com or email [email protected]. CEG

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