Case Study: Pryor Group achieves accurate, faster grading and manpower savings with Trimble 3D Machine Control and Business Center - HCE

Earthworks Contractor Pryor Group Achieves Accurate, Faster Grading

Pryor Group, a UK earthworks and civil engineering contractor with over 60 years’ experience, was engaged by the RSPB to deliver the 145-hectare Great Bells Farm habitat creation on the Isle of Sheppey. The project required reshaping ditches, scrapes and hydrological bunds to create freshwater habitat but faced tight working windows due to nesting seasons and winter flooding, plus complex, precise grading across a large, sensitive site that would be slow and costly with traditional survey and staking methods.

Pryor used Trimble solutions—Business Center - HCE for design and volume control, a GNSS Site Positioning system with SCS900, and GCS900 3D machine control on three dozers and one excavator—to deliver real-time grade guidance, automated blade control and continuous as-built data. The approach accelerated work, improved accuracy and safety, reduced manpower needs by an estimated two to three people (saving ~£600–£700/week), completed the job in two calendar years (six months on-site) and increased competitiveness, prompting plans to expand Trimble use across Pryor’s fleet.

Pryor Group

Fred Lusted

Engineering Manager