How It Works: Haul Roads for Automated Grading

Efficiency during the site work phase is crucial for grading contractors, especially if they’re working under a lump sum contract. If contractors are inefficient with their haul routes, excess fuel, machine hours, and worker hours can eat away at their fixed margins. Historically, the development of haul strategies has been “back of the napkin,” and efficiency varied wildly based on the expertise of the contractor. As part of our mission to accelerate site work, TraceAir developed the Haul Roads tool to improve job site productivity and to benefit both contractors and owners. 

The fastest haul road in a few clicks

TraceAir’s Haul Roads tool provides optimized haul routes for grading equipment during the site work phase. We use precise calculations captured by regular drone flyovers and our innovative software to calculate the fastest and most cost-effective grading strategy. The Haul Roads tool also accounts for several equipment types and allows users to make manual adjustments to customize their approach. 

In order to create a new haul road or confirm the production rate of a current road in Haul Roads:

• Select the load and dump zone.
• TraceAir will generate a haul road. Each color segment shows a different slope.
• To model an existing haul road, adjust the segments of the generated haul road to match real conditions.
• To modify the haul road drag and drop the points to the desired locations.

The tool provides the following outputs:

• Cycle time
• Loads per hour
• Volume per hour
• Overground distance

Like having 20 years of experience in your pocket

Well... we can't replicate ALL of the knowledge in your top foremen's brains, but we're getting close. With the current shortage of skilled labor and a rapidly aging construction workforce, contractors need technology to help bridge the knowledge gap between younger employees and their most experienced operations personnel. We developed Haul Roads for grading contractors to help inform and refine their grading strategy in the following situations:

1. Bidding: Haul Road can be used by estimators for accurate estimates of grading costs, improving win rates with predictable margins.
2. Equipment allocation: Quantify productivity (cy/hour moved depending on the equipment) for existing haul roads to know production rates in advance and allocate equipment resources.
3. Site balance: Design the optimal haul road while balancing cut & fill and find the fastest route on existing terrain. Haul Road suggests the safest option and highlights risky road segments. Use the Pioneering feature to design the quickest and safest temporary shortcuts for haul roads, quantify the cut & fill during the process, and save personnel's time on site. E.g., Using Haul Roads can take 15 minutes in the trailer as opposed to hours in the field.

Ready to see it in action?

TraceAir is a powerful, easy-to-use software that helps grading contractors optimize construction operations in the field. Schedule a demo with our team to see how it works.