Excavation safety is a combination of safety precautions and strategies surrounding any excavation process used in any construction or underground maintenance project. It encapsulates the responsibility that workers and construction firms have when it comes to avoiding the severe consequences of cable strikes.

Why is Excavation Safety Important?

Despite underground services presenting a somewhat unknown and hidden threat, excavations are among the most dangerous activities in the construction industry. In addition to disrupting local communities and businesses, striking a cable can result in electric shocks, explosions and fires that could damage both worker health and equipment.

Excavation hazards also include cave-ins, falling loads, hazardous atmospheres and hazards from using heavy equipment.

• Cable strikes can cause electrocution, explosions, gas leaks, or even flooding
• The collapse of the surrounding ground during excavations can be dangerous
• Materials nearby could fall onto people if disturbed by excavation activities
• The damage of nearby structures could lead to collapses

Excavation Precautions

Pre-work inspections can reduce hazards and the serious risk of injury during excavations. Precautions include careful planning as well as the use of optimal equipment and methods.

This can include CAT and Genny equipment, suitable signage, PPE, and sufficient training of all operatives working on a site.

Cable, pipe, and service plans should be checked to ensure that underground services are known and cable avoidance tools should be used regularly to double-check there are no cable services nearby. Additionally, if mechanical cables are involved in the process, the use of heavy-duty cable pulleys could add to safety. You can refer to Sava Cable’s guide on cable pulleys or similar resources that could help in maximizing cable life and also multiply the force.

Also, around the areas where there are underground services, mechanical equipment should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. If possible, spades and/or shovels should be used when extremely close to detected cables. Even picks and forks when not handled correctly can lead to pierced cables and pipes.

To avoid collapses, walls should be supported at the sides using temporary structures or supportive sheets. Also, it is safer if vehicles are kept away from the excavation area, especially large vehicles like diggers.

Excavation Protection

A number of tools and items can be used to improve safety during excavations, including:

• CAT and Genny equipment – the condition of an excavation site must be tested to ensure that it is safe before work takes place.
• Regular inspections – Inspections and reviewing cable records regularly should help to inform your team about any nearby services or cables before they present a problem
• Structural ramps – Structural ramps should be built according to the layout of your site and its uses, with designs adapted to the kind of machinery you are using.
• Warning signs – Once dangers are detected, they need to be effectively highlighted so that workers are completely aware of them when working. Warning signs such as barricades can help in some situations.

What are a CAT and Genny?

CAT refers to any and all cable avoidance tools but is more accurately used to describe the detecting equipment that can discover live cables and various signals from beneath the ground. Genny is used in many excavations to emit a signal that will bounce off any cable that is below the ground. This is especially important when cables don’t naturally give off a signal.

Without effective CAT and Genny equipment, and trained operatives to operate them, the damage you could cause to cables may result in injury, delays in work and huge repair costs. To learn more about cable avoidance and the available training on offer for operatives in the industry, get in touch with us at Sygma Solutions.

We have a range of programs and courses that can help you and your team operate safely and efficiently during excavation works.