the 2 guys on the right are no longer with the company..foreman & super...you cant see in the pic but its 2 dissimilar shields that would not stack and lock right but they figured it'd be ok..no accidents but the laborers and myself complained and the safety officer took care of it
Quite a few have looked but nobody has commented :beatsme. How many are thinking I've done or seen that and nobody got hurt. Well I'll say it, WELL DONE. You thought ( knew ) it was unsafe and you had the guts to do something about it. If it was not unsafe two people would not have got fired.
I guess I just missed the point, I don't see where the problem is:beatsme
I hate trench boxs peal them slopes back.
those are 2- 10 ft shields stacked upon each other..one is 6 inches thick..the other is 3..they (the rental co) didn't notice..and we didn't either untill we went to put the locking pins in..only 2 would fit
I'd hate to pay for all the stone or slurry to fill back in if trench shields were not used. We have a sewer relay that we are going to use a triple stack shields, I plan on posting pics for ya'll.
Please explain more or maybe I am missing something The boxes appear to be the same thickness to me.From what i see there doesnt appear to be a safety concern that would require the firing of two men unless i missed something.
Even if they were the same thickness. If you can only get two of the saftey pins in to lock them together it's not safe. If it's unsafe the job stops until the problem is solved, end of story. Anyone who says "oh well it 'should' be fine" is a moron. Safety is not something to slack off on.
do you guys dig inside those boxes with the spreader bars on top like that?
Usually dig the trench then pull the box forward into the new trench. The box is only for where the guys in the trench are. Have to manage to sling tools/pipe/spread rock into there though.
Man, those are some tight working quarters. What size bucket are you using ??
this is how we run are top box. so you can dig for grade and bed the pipe.
i think i was running a 42" bucket for the trench and i had a 27" bucket for grading the rock on the inside,,(yes our pipelayers are spoiled!!)
Thay maybe spoiled but nothing wrong with that.:thumbsup
we dig with 7' outside width box. dig a 6' 10" trench with 48" bucket. we dig the trench shallow and pinch the box into it. we then dig with 48" bucket inside the trench box to make final grade. there is just about no way to make a legal trench with steps. if you need to dig an 8' deep trench for water you will need to be a minimum of 12' wide on either side plus your tench bottom (this is for the a "good" soil). so if you have a 48" bucket you will end up needing to be 28' wide at the top.
Shackleford- the 28' top width value is based on a Class C soil (1.5H:1V), correct? Wouldn't that be considered a "bad" soil, relatively speaking? Wouldn't B (1H:1V) and A soils allow narrower top width, respectively (although those types may not exist many localities)? Maybe i've got my OSHA soil classifications transposed in my head........ thanks
the only time you will ever get away with a steeper slop is in solid, unfractured rock. then if you are blasting you probably can't even use that slope. it is written so shields are necessary. also, trench safety is one place osha feels needs extra help so it will be a focus for the next few years, so don't expect any leniency.
Another thing to consider is if you have a trench box on site, and not in the ditch, OSHA will hit you will a will full violation. You know the ground is bad enough to have a box, but you are not using it, its automatic. Its not exactly written that shields are necessary, look at all the gas line work that is sloped back. Its a matter of soil conditions and room. This is also going to depend on your back fill material. Look at it this way, if you are working in clay soils, lets say class be, you can slope back or pull a box. If i have to use granular backfill such as stone or sand you can bet its going to be done with a box. One thing to also consider is water intrusion. If you have any water coming, doesnt matter if you are in Class A unfractured rock, the water makes it an automatic Class C ditch.
correct, i am not considering work less then 4' deep.