While working on a project that threatened to seriously tax their traditional layout method, Manning Squires Henning (MSH) looked at a facet of their workflow and said, “there has to be a better way.” Venturing off the beaten path to see the alternatives available to them, the Rochester, New York-based general contractor was impressed with what they found.
As a result of that effort, MSH today counts a number of robotic layout instruments as among the most valued in its inventory — solutions that have largely supplanted its traditional tape and theodolite approach. Those tools can currently be found providing critical layout at the expansion of Strong Memorial Hospital, one of the area’s leading medical centers.
MSH is no stranger to larger projects. Its list of work includes the Buffalo Bills training facility, several other Rochester-area hospitals, and the Strong National Museum of Play, to name just a few. However, the expansion at Strong Memorial was still formidable in size, adding more than 650,000 square feet of new hospital space to an existing, still-functioning, major health facility. According to Jay Stanley, MSH Supervisor, the Strong Tower Expansion project will call all of the company’s strengths into play.
“We are installing pile caps and grade beams for foundations for the main basement of the new structure,” he said. “We are then installing concrete walls up to the ground level elevation and will do all of the structural, flatwork, slab-on-grade, as well as all the structural slab-on-deck pours for the nine-story towers. Later, we will be installing the brick and precast facade around the building. It’s the full gamut of work for us — subbing to a joint venture of Turner Construction and Pike Construction Services — but it’s also what we do best.”
From MSH’s perspective, literally every facet of the Strong Tower project will involve accurate, timely layout. In the past, in which a plumb bob, stringline, tape measure, and a theodolite were the “tools du jour,” that might have presented a problem. However, thanks to the implementation of robotic total station technology, layout is now one of the fastest, most accurate parts of their construction workflow.
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Getting to that point was as simple as acknowledging the need to change. According to Stanley, that started by seeing what was happening around them.
“We had seen other companies — including some on the mechanical/electrical/plumbing [MEP] side — utilize similar instruments at the time,” he said. “Speaking to them and hearing about how dramatically it changed their approach to layout, nudged us in that direction. At the time, we were dealing with a specific manufacturer for a lot of our other tools, so we had them do a presentation for us to see what layout instruments they could provide. After deciding that theirs was too complicated for our needs, we started looking around for something better suited to our needs.”
That search started with a call on Admar Supply, the local Topcon dealer that provided all of MSH’s digital theodolites, instrument calibrations, etc. Quickly understanding MSH’s situation and needs, they gave them a demonstration of the Topcon Layout Navigator (LN), a solution they felt was the ideal fit for them.
“The benefits were obvious right from the get-go,” Stanley said. “The unit’s simplicity was a huge selling point, as was the fact that one person can operate it. Layout isn’t always a team effort. Being able to have a guy do that alone is a huge plus. That pretty much sold us on it.”
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Designed for simple setup and operation, the Layout Navigator to which Stanley refers (the Topcon LN-150) automatically locks onto a pole-mounted prism/data collector, providing MSH with precise 3D positioning at up to a 130-meter working radius. Additional benefits the LN provide include a cloud-connected workflow with Autodesk, Bentley, and MAGNET software, as well as options for Wi-Fi and long-range Bluetooth communication.
While the LN is designed to be tripod mounted and portable, MSH has a pair of them semi-permanently attached to brackets embedded in grade beams at the Strong Memorial Hospital site. Doing so, Stanley said, not only allows for more repeatable, accurate set ups, but it also alleviates blockage from the steady stream of trucks into and out of the project, the regular movement of cranes, etc.
“The one real challenge out here is that it is an extremely tight area with a large number of trades working at once,” he said. “Because we need to have line of sight to the prism, getting the LNs in a permanent position above most of it helps ensure an uninterrupted connection — and keeps them intact.”
In addition to the LN itself, Stanley said the accompanying Topcon field computers — both FC-5000 and FC-6000 models — are critical tools for maintaining productivity well beyond layout.
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“Although they are excellent for all our layout needs, we like the fact that we can use the data collectors for more than just that,” he said. “Because it holds all the information for the job, if one of my team has a quick question about a dimension or a certain location of job, they can instantly bring up that info without having to run back to the trailer for it. Everything about the LN points to savings. It is easily two- to three-times faster than anything we’ve done before, and we get that same two- to three-times improvement in accuracy, reducing the need for do-overs. Simply put — all of that is savings.”
Just as MSH benefited from seeing others using an alternative layout solution, they too were sought out by another company after seeing their level of satisfaction with the LNs.
“At one of our projects, a subcontractor that works with us quite regularly, Frederico Construction, saw how quickly and accurately we were laying out foundation anchor bolts and started asking how we did it,” Stanley said. “We told them about the LN-150, and not long afterward, they had one of their own. Today, they are using it for layout and other survey-based functions, as well as part of a 3D control solution for a mini excavator — and [they are] pleased with it all. I’d say they did okay asking us about it.”
Stanley will be the first to admit that, though they are very comfortable with the new technology, they are far from savvy users and more than open to new ideas. One such idea came courtesy of the same organization that initially got them into the LN-150: Admar Supply.
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“The Admar sales rep recently helped us learn how to set up and access ‘MyTopcon,’ the company’s online support site,” Stanley said. “There are a ton of things that we will find helpful there, but we focused on streamlining how we handle data files. For example, we used to deal with the hassle — and risk — of putting files onto a thumb drive and then downloading them through that same thumb drive. Now, when I receive an e-mail with a CAD file on it, I can load it into ‘MyTopcon’ and no matter where I’m at, I can use a data collector, connect to Wi-Fi or a hotspot, and instantly download the job. The takeaway here is that Admar doesn’t consider its job done after selling us a piece of equipment. They’re always looking for ways to make us better, and we like that.”
Ease of use and smoothened workflow notwithstanding, next to safety, MSH’s main consideration will always be accuracy. Almost everything MSH does at the Strong Tower Expansion project is subject to pre-set tolerances and specifications. That includes items like the location of a footer, a wall, anchor bolts — even steel embeds that are mounted in the face of a wall for future steel ties.
“The next trade that comes in to set the steel on a bolt or weld steel to the embed plates will as-built those areas prior to beginning work to make sure that our placement is correct for them to install their components,” Stanley said. “We are constantly being checked on every facet of the job, and that’s fine. Of course, we always have the utmost confidence in our work. We are even more so now.”
He added that, for the first time since they began working with the Topcon solutions, they are considering having a CAD file built for every floor of the towers as they rise.
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“There are so many embeds and recesses in this building, floor to floor, that this is a perfect application for the robotic solution,” Stanley said. “Typically, we would pull tape and string line off column lines, which would [be] time consuming and a potential tripping hazard. Once we have a file built for every floor, we'll be able to simply lay out what we want, when we want. Using the LNs, it will be a luxury we’ve never had.”
MSH will wrap up their facet of the project in early 2028, with a grand opening of the new expansion set for later that year.
