T.U. Parks Construction Chooses Leica Geosystems iCON Robotic Total Station

T.U. Parks Construction Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee was founded in 1944 as a one-man construction firm and has grown into one of Tennessee's most progressive contractors, with a long history of health care work. The firm recently purchased Leica Geosystems iCON robotic total station in order to convert to one-man layout crews, and as the basis for a technologically superior construction layout system. The new instrument is getting its first big test on one of Chattanooga's largest ongoing construction projects, the remodel and reconstruction of Memorial Hospital’s Glenwood Campus South Addition.

"Just this part of the project is 190,000 square feet of new construction and remodeling," says Job Superintendent Gary Frame, "And most of it is adjacent to the intensive care units and surgery areas—we need to get our job done efficiently while staying out of the way. Reducing the number of personnel we have onsite is a good way to do that."

The iCON system is a suite of hardware and software optimized for construction and machine control. Total stations, machine control systems, GPS equipment, tablet PCs and PDAs are all connected around the central hub of Leica's iCONstruct field software, which can pass information back and forth wirelessly from field to office and from instrument to instrument. It's a powerful and easy-to-use system that cuts the time for common construction tasks while improving accuracy and reliability.

"With a two-man crew, there used to be two places for errors," explains Frame, "Now, with one man operating the instrument, and setting and marking points, our construction layout is more reliable and there's no opportunity for communication errors. And with the iCON equipment, I'm even able to work faster than with a two-man crew."

"As a company, Leica Geosystems continues to focus on the construction industry and progressive builders like T.U. Parks," said Pat Smith, Building and Construction Segment Business Manager for Leica Geosystems. "The workflows and data needs of contractors are different than those of surveyors, and most vendors don't seem to know that. This purchase is an endorsement of the work Leica has done to get it right."

Leica Geosystems – when it has to be right

With close to 200 years of pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyze easily, and visualize and present spatial information.

Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 3,500 employees in 28 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden.