Excavation Safety

• Daily inspections of excavations, the adjacent areas, and protective systems shall be made by a competent person for evidence of a situation that could result in possible cave-ins, failure of protective systems, hazardous atmospheres, or other hazardous conditions.

• Each employee will be protected from cave-ins by a protective system, except when excavations are made entirely in stable rock or excavations are less than 5 ft in depth and examination of the ground by a competent person provides no indication of a potential cave-in.

• Means of egress from trench excavations - A stairway, ladder, ramp or other safe means of egress shall be located in trench excavations that are 4 ft or more in depth so as to require no more than 25 ft of lateral travel for employees...