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Excavation and Trenching Program

Excavation

Background:

Excavation cave-ins cause serious and often fatal injuries to workers in the United States. An analysis by OSHA of workers' compensation claims suggests that excavation cave-ins caused about 1,000 work-related injuries each year. Of these, about 140 result in permanent disability and 75 in death. Thus, this type of incident is a major cause of deaths associated with work in excavations and accounts for nearly 1% of all annual work-related deaths in the nation.

Policy:

OSHA standards require that walls and faces of all excavations in which workers are potentially exposed to danger from moving ground be guarded by a shoring system, safe sloping of the ground, or equivalent means of protection such as trench shield or boxes. In addition, OSHA standards require additional shoring and bracing procedures when excavations or trenches are located adjacent to previously backfilled excavations or where excavations are subjected to vibrations from railroad or highway traffic, the operation of machinery, or other sources.

As an obvious first step in preventing any injury or fatality in the future, the Company concludes that all such excavation operations shall be done only in full compliance with existing OSHA standards.

Therefore, the Company requires that the following procedures are observed and will be followed without exception:

• The Company will have all utilities marked before digging. The Company will call utility companies and shut off all electricity, gas, and water pipes in the trench.

• Shoring systems or sloping of the walls be used in all excavations 5 to 24 feet deep in any type of soil, except solid, stable rock.

• Appropriate shoring, shielding, or sloping requirements for all excavations deeper than 24 feet shall be determined by an engineer qualified to make these determinations.

• Materials must not be placed four feet or less from the edge of the excavation.

• Stop logs or barriers will be placed where vehicles and /or equipment that operate near the excavation do not accidentally fall into the excavation.

• Dirt generated from the excavated hole will not be stockpiled closer than 6 feet from the open hole

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