4 Crucial Safety Tips for Trenching with an Excavator
If you are planning on creating trenches on your property for construction or landscaping purposes, you will want to hire an excavator. This machine comes with a trenching bucket which is ideal for digging appropriate channels with speed and ease. However, it is important to remember that the excavator is heavy and dangerous. Therefore, the equipment must be operated by an experienced individual to minimise excavation hazards on your property. In addition, you should consider the below-outlined tips to promote overall safety.
Check for Utilities on Your Site
You should not dig your land without knowing whether there are some important underground utilities underground. For example, there could be water pipes, sewer lines or electrical conduits on your property. If your excavator comes in contact with these networks, the workers on your worksite and other individuals could be affected by the damage. Therefore, you should contact your utility providers or a locating expert to help you prevent mishaps.
Mark Out the Trenching Path
You should determine the correct path for trenching after identifying the location of your underground utilities. It is difficult for anyone to dig in a straight line without any guiding marks. Trenching blindly can be detrimental to your project, and you might end up damaging the already identified buried elements. If the ground is firm and suitable, you can mark out the desired trench using a chalk line. However, if the visibility of the chalk line will be low on your ground, you can place a guiding string line.
Plan Your Digging Progress
You should determine the best plan to follow when digging your trench. In simple terms, you should determine the right path to drive the excavator as you progress through the dig. If you overlook the importance of this type of plan, you could end up with a boxed-in excavator with limited paths for movement. You might be forced to operate the equipment close to a building, on unstable ground or too close to the trenched area. You can avoid these dangers by mapping out the progress.
Perform Equipment Inspections
Finally, you should encourage your excavation contractor to perform an inspection of the equipment before commencing work. Often, accidents occur because of the small issues which are overlooked prior to the digging process. You should never allow the trenching project to proceed if there are hydraulic fluids leaking, mechanical problems or instability in the digging arms and accessories. If there are anomalies in the equipment, you should contact your equipment expert for troubleshooting.
For more information, contact your local excavator hire specialist.
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