6005 Safe Trenching, Excavation and Ground Disturbance (1 day)

This one-day course is designed for those individuals who are planning, supervising, or doing the work.   Safety of the workforce is the primary goal.

Course Objectives:
To supply quality education and advice to workers, operators, supervisors, and management in helping to plan for safe trenching and excavating where worker entry is required.

Course content:

• Ground Disturbances
• Call Before You Dig — The Damage Prevention Process in Alberta
• Legislation —
  • Due Diligence and how it affects you
  • Part 32 Excavating and Tunneling
  • Alberta Pipeline Act
• Soil Terminology/Classifications
• Hazard Assessments and Controls
• Overhead Power lines — construction safe limits
• Confined Space Entry and Code of Practice
• Construction Near Pipelines
• Crossing Agreements
• Shoring Systems
• Environmental Protection
• Emergency Response Planning
• Various reference materials

Summary:
After completing the course, you should be able to:

• Recognize the hazards associated with trenching and excavating and how to control them by administrative, engineering, or personal protective measures
• Know how to contact Alberta One Call and other Utility owners for locates
• Be able to refer to the applicable legislation regarding trenching and excavating
• Know what type of protective structure (shoring) to use to protect your workers
• Know how to determine if the excavation/trench is a confined space and what precautions to take
• Be able to recognize soil changes in trenches/excavation
• Identify the need for Environmental Assessments

Safety in trenching and excavating can be accomplished with proper hazard assessment and control, planning and by communicating to workers the hazards associated with the work to be undertaken.