Cross Section Survey in a Matter of Minutes Using Drone Data
With the power of drone-captured data and the Propeller Platform, surveying cross sections becomes as…
“Everything we do starts in Propeller”: How Silver Creek Materials created their geospatial data center
About the project
Silver Creek Materials has been a trusted provider of sand and gravel mining, landscaping materials, and recycling in Fort Worth, Texas, for generations. When former IT professional Marshall Dow (now Silver Creek’s CEO) set out to modernize operations, he knew that better data would be key across every department.
He kicked off a drone photogrammetry program to map Silver Creek’s worksites and track stockpile volumes, but their original platform wasn’t accurate or scalable enough to meet their needs. That’s when they found Propeller.
Today, Silver Creek uses Propeller as the geospatial backbone of their business, fueling more precise site planning, inventory management, and compliance reporting—all via an intuitive platform that every team member can use.
The Challenge
Inaccurate data and a disjointed workflow
When Silver Creek kicked off their drone survey program with another software (in controlled airspace, no less) the process worked well enough at first. But as the business continued to grow, the cracks became impossible to ignore:
- Inaccurate drone data: Elevations and stockpile volumes weren’t precise enough for major projects, limiting the drone’s potential benefits. The team regularly used Google Earth and manual methods to fill in accuracy gaps.
- Scattered data: The team frequently had to switch between platforms to find the information they needed, relying heavily on Marshall for answers.
- Prohibitive cost to scale: Steep per-user licensing fees left just a few team members to interpret and deliver data.
For a fast-growing and highly collaborative operation like Silver Creek, this approach simply wasn’t sustainable.
We’re a fast-growing, data-informed company. The accuracy of the PPK workflow and our ability to scale to 20+ active users made Propeller a total game changer. We could never go back.
The Solution
A geospatial data hub for the whole business
Marshall worried about how long it would take the team to understand and implement a new addition to the tech stack, but he pushed past that hurdle, hiring Ryan McKay as the primary drone pilot and site planner in the process.
“Propeller is so intuitive on the back end,” Ryan said. “So many people jump in and just start using it, which saves Marshall and me a ton of time.”
The cost to scale on Propeller was tens of thousands of dollars less than with their legacy provider, widening access across departments, from mine reclamation and water level monitoring to commercial real estate inspections.
With reliable accuracy from Propeller PPK, Silver Creek has centralized stockpile measurement, site planning, and compliance tracking in a single intuitive platform. Even non-technical teams use the mobile app to upload geotagged photos and flag issues (like potential berm hazards) directly from the truck when they’re on-site.
Everything we do starts in Propeller, and most of what goes into AutoCAD ends up back in Propeller. It’s definitely our geospatial data hub.
Silver Creek’s favorite features and workflows
Hydrology tools
The team uses up-to-date floodplain overlays and water management tools to make smarter planning decisions and meet environmental compliance standards.
Vertical face imagery
VFI helps the mining manager understand material strata, calculate remaining production, and manage operations without setting foot onsite.
Material tracking
The team uses Propeller to monitor inventory and validate deliveries, track resale materials, and flag discrepancies. “We’ve already found major discrepancies,” said Marshall. “Sometimes we’re 10-20 yards short on material, which is a lot. It’s helped keep everyone accountable.”
Propeller usually has a feature and a way to integrate pretty much anything we need.
Mining machine utilization data with DirtMate
Marshall and the team recently added DirtMate units to their machinery to monitor night shift activity and better understand their productivity metrics. Before DirtMate, the team tracked load counts manually using clickers, relying on guesswork to monitor and manage site performance.
With real-time machine utilization data and location tracking, they’ve been able to:
- Set data-driven production targets and calibrate expectations for night shift operators
- Automate tracking for haul truck load and cycle counts, idle times, and route efficiency
- Analyze usage and productivity trends to optimize equipment investments
Within a month, DirtMate data drove real-world efficiency improvements by showing that they could easily justify the purchase of a new front end loader. They’ve also used it to coach their equipment operators and tweak the habits that make the biggest impact.
We love being able to see our DirtMate equipment moving around on the map and go, ‘I wonder if we can increase efficiency that way?’ People who aren’t normally tech savvy are looking at site maps to come up with new ideas.
The Result
Silver Creek’s site data evolution
What started as an accuracy upgrade using Propeller’s PPK workflows quickly became much more. Today, Silver Creek uses Propeller to power nearly every part of the business, thanks to an intuitive design that makes geospatial data easy for everyone to use.
Marshall and Ryan were both wowed by the helpfulness of Propeller’s customer service reps, “Whenever we have a new job we’re bidding, we can quickly ask our account rep, ‘How can we bend Propeller to do this weird new survey?’ It’s been a great experience,” said Ryan.
With the addition of DirtMate, they’re evolving again, moving from weekly drone flights to real-time machine tracking. Within a month, DirtMate data showed that they could easily justify the purchase of a new front end loader.
For Silver Creek, Propeller is more than a platform. It’s the foundation for how they run smarter every day—and they’re only gaining momentum.
We work in a blue-collar industry that’s rapidly digitizing, and that’s hard for a lot of people to adapt to. But if you know how to use Google Maps, you can jump right into Propeller and understand what you’re doing.
Propeller touches every department in our business in a really big way. If we didn’t have the platform, it would leave a big void for us.
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