Trenching & Rigging

Course Summary

Deaths caused by excavation cave-ins account for nearly 18% of all annual occupational deaths in construction. Before you begin any excavation, trenching, or shoring activities, you need to take specific steps to set up the work site to help to avoid the accidental disruption of utilities and assure the stability of adjacent structures. There’s a lot that can go wrong with these scenarios, so awareness and preparedness are critical priorities for protecting the workforce.

BEST Safety Training has put together this discussion-based program to ensure your construction workers understand the dangers of working around trenches and can put in place the corrective measures to ensure cave-ins do not happen.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the program students will understand how to:

• Identify safety requirements when setting up an excavation site

• Identify hazards in and around an excavation, trenching, and shoring site

• Identify precautions, protective measures, and the types of support systems used at an excavation site

• Identify soil types as outlined in the regulation

• Identify hazards such as standing water, seepage of water, soil changes during excavation

• Recognize cave-in protection requirements and identify proper procedures to keep employees safe on an excavation site