Excavation Safety: Common Hazards and How To Avoid Them

February 10, 2023 5:20 pm Published by Leave your thoughts

Many excavation processes proceed wonderfully with no issues. However, sometimes, safety issues get in the way and can cause incidents. You’ll need to stay extra aware of all the common excavation safety hazards to keep yourself and your crew healthy. Here’s a short list of common hazards and the steps you can take to avoid them.

Trips and Falls

Trips and falls are some of the most frequent incidents that occur during the excavation process. Workers fall over everything from cable lines to tree branches and debris. The severity of these incidents varies from minor injuries to incidents that require hospitalization.

The best way to prevent this problem is to train workers to watch out for hazardous situations. You can also mark dangerous areas and keep people away from the excavation site if they should not be there.

Illness-Causing Air

Toxic air is another common concern during the excavation process. Often, hazardous gases escape from the excavation site. Sometimes, smoke is in the air, and low oxygen levels exist. The best way to handle those issues is to perform testing before starting a project. Completing atmospheric testing will help to prevent you from receiving an unwanted and unexpected shock and having to deal with it unpreparedly.

Buried Electrical Lines and Cables

Another hazard at excavation sites is that the activity will expose something dangerous, like an electric line. Stumbling upon an unexpected electrical line can cause severe damage and has caused it in the past. The best way to deal with this situation is to consider using a vacuum excavator truck. This equipment will allow you to remove all the necessary debris with absolute precision.

Loads Dropping

Loads sometimes fall on people and cause them injuries that way. You can use various methods to prevent such loads from dropping in the future. One idea is to check the OSHA guidelines on properly stacking items. Using safe procedures to stack products will prevent the items from being in a position to fall.

Caving Soil

Caving soil is another common problem that occurs and causes issues. The severity of the incident can be bad enough to cause death. Turning to the hydro excavation process can greatly reduce the chance of risk. It can also get the job done much faster than usual. Thus, you may want to consider using that method.

Those are just a few of the excavation safety issues. You should now know how to avoid excavation hazards so that they don’t interrupt your project’s flow. Be mindful and cautious at all times to prevent injuries as much as possible.

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