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Tru Earthworks has reduced site survey times thanks to Smart Construction

The Government’s rollout of AI-powered planning tools to help deliver 1.5 million new homes highlights the growing role of technology in tackling housing challenges. But while planning reform is important, experts at Smart Construction say improving productivity on site is just as critical if housebuilding is to accelerate.

The digital arm of Komatsu believes automation and connected technology are key to increasing efficiency and speeding up project delivery.

One company already seeing the benefits is Tru Earthworks, which has improved site efficiency and shortened project times by adopting Smart Construction technology across 27 UK projects.

Using Smart Construction Edge, Tru Earthworks has transformed its drone surveying process with real-time data processing. Instead of waiting to return to the office, survey data is processed immediately – even while travelling between sites – saving engineers valuable time. The software also reduces manual point cloud clean-up and minimises the need for surveyors to carry out hazardous on-foot surveys.

Operating on projects ranging from housing developments to major infrastructure works, Tru Earthworks carries out up to five full site surveys each week. Before adopting Smart Construction Edge, a full progress survey could take up to four hours, with additional time needed to process the data.

Now, drone surveys can be completed in around an hour, helping site teams make faster decisions and keep projects moving.

Tristan Rumsby, Earthworks Engineer at Tru Earthworks, said: “By adopting new technologies, the team can save days of work and accelerate the delivery of homes across multiple sites.

“Edge cuts out hours of unproductive work, allowing us to focus on business-critical tasks. The automated object removal is a huge time saver, removing machinery and non-terrain features to give us an accurate ground model without lengthy manual editing.

“Combined with Smart Construction Dashboard, it also improves collaboration across the business.”

Bart Vingerhoets, Senior Commercial Manager at Smart Construction, added: “Improving productivity on site is essential if the industry is to meet growing demand for new homes. Our technology is designed to remove inefficiencies, and Tru Earthworks is a great example of how digital solutions can deliver measurable time savings and improve project delivery.”