Ashleigh Contracts deploys Prolec’s PCX across its operations

With over 20 years of industry experience, Ashleigh Contracts – a leading UK marine civil engineering specialist – has collaborated with Prolec to increase the productivity of its marine and coastal defence construction operations. As part of its commitment to first-class project delivery, Ashleigh Contracts have invested heavily in Prolec's proven PCX 3D GPS machine control systems across its entire long-reach fleet to help it position construction materials such as core material, rock armour, scour protection bedding material and concrete sea defence units – including Accropodes and x-blocs – with increased accuracy and efficiency.

Greg Brown, contracts manager, explains: “When building breakwaters or revetments, it is critical that the materials are placed precisely to the approved construction designs to maximise the protection that they offer. By using Prolec’s PCX system, our operators can ensure that every item is positioned correctly first time, every time.”

Organising its operations around tidal shift patterns to avoid high tides, PCX helps Ashleigh Contracts to overcome the challenges of marine construction. With its robust design and real-time progress monitoring, PCX not only delivers assured performance in harsh environments but also enables Ashleigh Contracts to capitalise on low tide conditions; maximising productivity in these short windows of opportunity.

Greg Brown continues: “We invested in full 3D GPS machine control most recently on our 200T Hitachi EX1200XXL to improve the accuracy and efficiency of our operations. Ensuring that every block is accurately placed, Prolec’s PCX system helps us to build breakwaters in accordance with the precise designs specified by our clients.”

After each shift, Ashleigh Contracts takes advantage of PCX’s ability to easily download XYZ surveys undertaken during shifts to send reports to its clients. This enables reviews and approvals to be completed swiftly before the next low tide while granting stakeholders greater visibility of progression.

Impressed with the system's range of benefits, Ashleigh Contracts has since decided to equip almost all of its long-reach excavators with PCX to gain a competitive advantage in the marine construction sector. The company also stated that going forwards, it will continue to partner with Prolec in the further development of 3D machine control technology to raise the bar for productivity in the marine construction and coastal defence sectors.