On average, two construction workers die in the UK every year when excavations collapse and many more are injured. The majority of incidents and accidents occur in and around excavations less than 2.4m deep with either little or no temporary shoring.
To tackle this, the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) has published The Good Practice Guide for the Management of Shoring in Excavations.
Primary author of the guide is Steve Hesketh, chairman of the CPA shoring technology interest group since 2010. Mr Hesketh is also engineering director at MGF, which manufactures and supplies approximately 30% of the UK’s excavation support systems.
The CPA guide outline best practice in excavations management and offers a simple temporary works process for the planning, design and construction phases. It is one of a series of safety publications from the CPA and further parts are currently being developed to promote best practice and technical advancement in excavation support systems.
Mr Hesketh said: “The guide outlines a simple process for managing excavations and by following this advice, those engaged in the planning and execution process will generally be doing enough to satisfy their health and safety obligations under CDM 2007. In addition for the first time simple industry wide advice is given on assessing the competence of the duty holders identified in the process.”
He added: “The guide is supported by groups representing all parts of the industry and in the long term it is hoped that industry wide adoption of the guide will lead to significant improvements in safety, programme and cost control.”
The guide is available for free download from the CPA website www.cpa.uk.net/p/Shoring-Technology-Interest-Group/
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