trenching safety in the news...

[wasabi]

Anyone else read the Sunday morning NY Times? There is an in-depth piece in today's about a plumber's apprentice who died in 2002 in a sewer pipe trench cave-in. Very sad, but informative about a topic I thought my fellow tractor owners at TBN, one of my favorite forums, would apprecaite.

While not that many here are digging twelve foot deep trenches, nor perhaps subject to or familiar with OSHA rules (just by way of reference, not a dig. or non dig...let's not open the "governemnt" jar), inadvertant lessons can be learned from a situation so well covered.

Anyway, my point is the importance of safety on the job comes through loud and clear with this article and I think it is worth reading if you get the chance.

Let's be careful out there. Wishing Good Health, Happiness and Time to enjoy it to all!

Sabi

 

[Junkman]

The Sunday Times is like reading an encyclopidia.... which section is the article in and page number also will help..... thanks....

 

[Egon]

Trenches; simply put, if over five feet deep stay out of them unless properly shored or caged. Five feet can also be too deep when the spoil pile is too close and dirt conditions are not favorable.

And don't beleive the fellar who says he can look at a trench and say it is safe to enter.

And frozen soil don't count neither.

When it collapses all you hear/know is a little "thump " after the fact. That is if you were not in it .

Egon

 

[RoyJackson]

I strongly agree with Egon on that advice!!

Before I got drafted (way back when) I worked as a plumber's apprentice. Been in my share of trenches..buried up to my waist in one of them.
You don't have to be completely buried to be in trouble. I could breath OK when the dirt was upto my waist, but if you're up to your upper chest or neck, it's darn near impossible to breath.
Another thing I really hated...when the bottom of the trench was sloppy mud. You know the kind that practically sucks your boots off when you try to walk through it. When it's like that in the bottom of a trench, you're just not going to move fast enough to react.

 

[Renze]

Hmm... Over here in the Netherlands, we dont put electricity, drinking water supply and waste water pipes any deeper than the legally prescribed 70 cm.. Over here, the frost line is not as deep, so we dont have this sort of accidents.

...You could also just dig a ditch, with sloping sides. You will be moving three or four times as much dirt, but safety always has a price...

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah. Anybody remember geting burried in sand at the beach. It doesn't take much to keep you from being able to move.

 

[keeney]

When the excavators came to dig my water line in for my new house, I figured they would make a trench about one bucket width wide, lay the pipe in, jump down and solder the connections real quick.

I knew I was wrong when I saw the size of the machine they brought - it was slightly smaller than my house. They made the trench wider than it was deep. A 12 to 15-foot wide, 10-foot deep, 100-foot long hole in the ground is a big hole.

- Rick

 

[Junkman]

Just think of the mess that they will make when that soldered copper pipe has to be replaced due to pin hole leaks......

 

[PineRidge]

<font color="blue">Just think of the mess that they will make when that soldered copper pipe has to be replaced due to pin hole leaks......
</font>

Plastic would have been my 1st choice there.......

 

[chim]

Soldered copper for underground isn't an accepted installation method.....................chim

 

[Junkman]

The sad part is that back in the 1960's, that is what they were using.... soft copper tubing and silver soldered joints...... That is also why I know what will happen to it. I had to replace it at my old home......
Today, the best way is to use schedule 40 PVC with solvent welded connections buried in sand with a plastic NSF approved pipe running down the center.... when it springs a leak, it is easy to replace. Now, some might not think that it will never spring a leak, but I have had it happen with my well pump line. I kept hearing the pump going on and off and no one was drawing water. Traced the problem to a pin hole in the pipe between the pump and the pit-less adapter. Pulled out the pump and there it was..... right in the middle of a 300 foot piece of black plastic pipe....squirting like a fountain... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[fivestring]

<font color="red">"The Sunday Times is like reading an encyclopidia" </font>

Not exactly....
The encyclopedia is unbiased and educational.

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( <font color="red">"The Sunday Times is like reading an encyclopidia" </font>

Not exactly....
The encyclopedia is unbiased and educational. )</font>

Just your opinion!!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JDgreen227]

And it's rare to find a typo in the encyclopedia !!

 

[Junkman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( And it's rare to find a typo in the encyclopedia !! )</font>

and they don't misspell "encyclopedia" like I did in the original post.. I have to find a better spell checker... My current one is full of errors and glitches .... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[Renze]

dug in at the beach....

Over here, in Holland, the German tourists are known because teh first thing they do when arriving at the beach is digging a hole for the kids. (Some older people, those who can remember WW2, say that they are secret infantry scouts for a 2nd battle of England ??)
Some Germans make it a competition, about who has the deepest beach hole.

I am told that two years ago, a German died in the sand hole he dug at the beach... That's a bad holiday....
Anyway i have my doubts about the credibility of these stories...

My mother got buried too, when she was 5 years old, visiting family. It was in a sand pit, where sand was dug out for general farm use. One of the older kids was smart enough to clear her face, before they ran for help.

 

[keeney]

Not sure how they actually connected it, but it was soft copper tubing in a continuous length from my basement to the valve near the street.

If it ever needs replacing, I suppose they could line or "burst" the tubing without ripping up the whole yard again.

If it does get a small leak I won't care because its on the city's side of the meter

- Rick

 

[Junkman]

If the leak undermines the foundation of your home, they I am sure you will mind. Water has a bad habit of moving soil from where it should be to were it thinks it should be. They are called sink holes in some parts of the country and when they open up, they swallow everything around them.... homes, cars, busses, etc....... Not a pretty sight...

 

[Inspector507]

keeney,
Around here......a leak on "their" side of the meter is still your pocket that gets emptier if it leaks. "Their" money stops at the back side of the valve at the street.

 

[MossRoad]

Every few years we hear stories in the news about kids digging caves into the sides of the sand dunes along lake Michigan(about 20-30 miles from here). No parent is paying attention, the kids start digging, then the cave collapses on one or two of the children. I recall several deaths over the years and several instances of brain damage due to lack of oxygen before they could get them out.