Excavations

Abstract

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued its first Excavation and Trenching Standard in 1971 to protect workers from excavation hazards. Since then, OSHA has amended the standard several times to increase worker protection and to reduce the frequency and severity of excavation accidents and injuries. Despite these efforts, excavation-related accidents resulting in injuries and fatalities continue to occur. To better assist excavation firms and contractors, OSHA has completely updated the existing standard to simplify many of the existing provisions, add and clarify definitions, eliminate duplicate provisions and ambiguous language, and give employers added flexibility in providing protection for employees. In addition, the standard provides several new appendices. One appendix provides a consistent method of soil classification. Others provide sloping and benching requirements, pictorial examples of shoring and shielding devices, timber tables, hydraulic shoring tables, and selection charts that provide a graphic summary of the requirements contained in the standard.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2000
Accession Number
ADA400347

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Department of Labor

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Contractors
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Excavation
  • Governments
  • Groundwater
  • Industrial Relations
  • Materials
  • New York
  • Occupational Safety And Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  • Personnel Management
  • Program Management
  • Protective Equipment
  • Safety
  • Standards
  • Training

Readers

  • Archaeological Resource Survey
  • Aviation Safety Risk Assessment.
  • Computer Science.