Excavation & Trenching Safety

The National Utility Contractors Association (NUCA) has declared June 2021 as “Trench Safety Month”. This is the second year of Trench Safety Month which NUCA devoted to getting the message out about the importance of employee safety when working underground or in and around trenches. The designation of Trench Safety Month further highlights NUCA’s “Trench […]

Many kinds of equipment and methods are used to determine the type of soil prevailing in an area, as described below (from OSHA). Pocket Penetrometer Penetrometers are direct-reading, spring-operated instruments used to determine the unconfined compressive strength of saturated cohesive soils. Once pushed into the soil, an indicator sleeve displays the reading. The instrument is […]

Shielding protects workers by using trench boxes or other types of supports to prevent soil cave-ins. Designing a protective system can be complex because you must consider many factors: soil classification, depth of cut, water content of soil, changes caused by weather or climate, surcharge loads (e.g., spoil, other materials to be used in the […]

Benching means a method of protecting workers from cave-ins by excavating the sides of an excavation to form one or a series of horizontal levels or steps, usually with vertical or near vertical surfaces between levels. Benching cannot be done in Type C soil Other types of excavation protective systems include sloping, shoring, and shielding. […]

OSHA requires that workers in trenches and excavations be protected, and that safety and health programs address the variety of hazards they face. The following hazards cause the most trenching and excavation injuries: No Protective System Failure to Inspect Trench and Protective Systems Unsafe Spoil-Pile Placement Unsafe Access/Egress Per OSHA’s Trenching and Excavation Construction eTool, […]