Shoring + Shielding = Safety + Savings While safety is the prime reason for employing trench protection, proper trench shoring and shielding can also work to improve your productivity and deliver cost savings as well. Make the correct trench protection choices and you'll get Protection, Production, and Profitability---a winning tri-fecta for any contractor! SAFETY While some contractors may still think of trench protection primarily as a government-mandated safety regulation, the fact remains that countless workers have been spared from serious injury or death because of the proper use of these products. Considering that one cubic yard of soil weighs about 3000 lbs., it's easy to predict the outcome of a trench cave-in on an unprotected worker. As a contractor yourself, you've heard about or perhaps even been on the job sites where tragedies such as this have occurred. Even with the strong focus on regulation, trench cave-ins still kill nearly 100 workers every year, and seriously injure many nore. That in itself is reason enough for the continuin gevolvement and enforcement of OSHA regulations, Competent Person Training, and other requirements. PRODUCTIVITY When compared to the benefit of saving lives, the original reason that trench shields and shoring developed --- to increase productivity --- is sometimes overlooked today. Back in the mid - 1900's, contractorsbuilt their own devices to "shield" the trench sides and minimize soil removal during excavation. Due to poor engineering and design, (or none at all!), homemade trench boxes were mismatched, too heavy, too weak, too difficult to move. Often they were made so poorly that they themselves were a hazard, referred to by such endearing names as mules, cages, shoes, or coffins. In the mid-1960's, a utility contractor and an engineer and metel fabrication company in the Midwest partnered to desig, build, and market the first professionally engineered nad mass-produced trench shileds. These products were built to rigid and accurate specs, with reliable materials, and their popularity with contractorsgrew rapidly because of their many productivity benefits. Productivity is increased in linear trenching applications in a number of ways, including handling less soil, reducing machine cycles, requiring less equipment and fewer workers at the jobsites, and minimizing site restoration. Similar benefits may even be attained in so-called trenchless applications. Since cave-in protection must be in place before boring machines are set in place in the excavation, the proper configuration of steel stacking shields, or a SLide Rail System, can be a productivity benefit, especially in older urban areas with confined workspaces and deteriorating infastructure. A Slide Rail System is ideal for use in pit applications, because it is easy to install and remove, and once installed the system can remain in place throughtout the project offering protection and security to both men and machinery. COST SAVINGS The money saved by reducing excavation and restoration costs, requiring fewer vehicles and equipmentat the jobsite, and lowering both liability insurance and worker's compensation costs all affect the contractor's bottom line. Just about anyone who moves dirt or places workers in a hole, pit, shaft, trench or excavation must shore the site, shield the workers, or slope the site, which makes trench protection products an intergral part of the mix for all contractors. THE FUTURE The underground construction industry is rapidly changing through the development of new products, technologies, and infrastucture issues. Today's shields and shoring are frequently being designed with interchangable parts for added versatility and maximum use of capital assests. Modularity and interchangability allows these products to be effective in multiple adverse or unique conditions such as extremely poor soil, and tight or expansive work spaces. Custom designs for unique applications frequently becoming the norm rather than the exception. Trench shield manufacturing are looking to the future, and intregarading innovative design into their priducts to meet and ever-changing marketplce, with sacrificing safety and productivity. |