Trench safety toolbox talk: trench boxes
Read these 5 points to the crew before work, ask the questions, and get signatures. Based on 29 CFR 1926.652.
Say this
- At 5 ft or deeper, the trench needs a box, shoring or a slope. Over 20 ft, an engineer designs it.
- Use the box's tab data: depth rating and how it's stacked.
- Stay inside the box. Never stand between the box and the trench wall.
- Get in and out by the ladder inside the box, within 25 ft of you.
- Nobody in the box while it's being moved.
Ask the crew
- Where on this site today does "trench boxes" matter most?
- What would you do first if it went wrong?
- Who do you tell, and how?
Hazards on today's tasks
- Trenching: Utility strike: gas, power, water or fiber in the way
- Trenching: Cave-in: a trench wall gives way and buries someone
- Trenching: Struck-by: the bucket or the swinging excavator
How to give it
Hold it where the work is, at the start of the shift, standing up. Read each point out loud, then point at the real thing on this site: the trench, the ladder, the machine, the cord. Ask the questions and wait for answers; the quiet ones often know the most. Keep it to about 5 minutes so it gets done every day.
Write down anything the crew raises and fix it before the work starts. Everyone signs, including subs and visitors working that shift. Keep the signed sheet with the day's JHA; it's your record that the training happened (29 CFR 1926.652, and 29 CFR 1926.21(b)(2)).
Sign-in
| Name | Signature | Date |
|---|---|---|
Goes with the JHA for trenching.
Questions crews ask
How long is the trench boxes toolbox talk?
About 5 minutes: read the 5 points, ask the questions, and have the crew sign.
Which OSHA rule is it based on?
29 CFR 1926.652.
Tomorrow, the crew signs on one phone.
Free for one site and one camera. $99 a site after. Crew is always free. 7 days of everything free, no card.