What Are The Best professional practices in excavation activities?
Have you been at any excavation site before? If yes, what does it look like? This is just a sample of what a typical excavation site should look like.
It has become a normal practice for most construction jobs to be done with little regard to the safety of the workers, machines, and the environment yet no serious penalty will be charged to the offenders. It takes a qualified and experienced person for sound techniques to be used during construction jobs.
Excavation is one of the major activities that do occur at any place mapped out for the building of any project either by the government or individuals. The sole aim of the excavation is to obtain a uniform level of the ground before mounting structures on it.
Other reasons for excavation in the construction would be to bring out a large volume of soil so it can be used to fill another hole, or for foundation filling.
Besides other uses excavation also finds its use in the mining industries such as gold mines, coal mining and diamond mining, etc. the activity is very vital in obtaining many solid minerals from the ground.
The problem of excavation has been mostly based on the solid nature of the soil that which such action would take place.
A truck driver explained that he prefers conveying solid dry sand to wet muds or wet sands because they are lighter to convey than the wet types and if the load he is carrying is heavy it will have a great effect on his driving strength and impose more risk of accident for him.
I had witnessed several excavation works including the making of a water drainage system which also requires excavation activities but I can say that only a few apply the safe strategy in ensuring the safety of personnel involved in such activity.
A situation excavation job is carried out after a heavy rainfall will definitely require a good safety boot and dry leather hand groves for effective gripping of objects and be avoiding the slippery nature of the soil that could cause serious fall to the personnel working.
However, in some local construction sites such is not the case, to them, excavation can be carried out in any weather condition without full regard to safety implementation.
Top Five Best professional practices in excavation activities
The picture above can be referred to as a good example of professional practice in excavation activities, such that the following were put into consideration:
WORK OUTPUT PER HOUR
Work output simply means the quantity of work to be done within a specific period of time. Good construction industry will always measure its work output and use it to estimate the needed hours for the remaining parts of the job.
The only way to increase this work output is by using machines with big sizes and rigidity in carrying out their functions. That is just what is visible when you take a close look at the excavator shovel which has such a large size capable of excavating about 4 wheelbarrows of soil per action.
While the truck was meant to carry enough volume of excavated sand such that a few trips of the truck will give a good work output for the day, and will also reduce the stress of driving to its driver.
PERSONAL SAFETY
The safety of the workers was put into consideration since they were working under the shelter of the two vehicles.
Anyone standing within had been asked to give a good distance from this location because of the swinging actions of the excavator which may hit anyone nearby in the event of any mechanical failure.
Such incidents can lead to fatal accidents and death, so ensuring no one is within the space is a good sign of safety for personnel.
MACHINE DURABILITY
When there is a division of labor in machines it helps in sustaining the lifespan of the machine.
Some local construction industries wouldn’t mind using the excavator to convey the sand directly to an area it is needed without the use of any truck.
The truth is that it may cut the cost of hiring the truck but it will give high stress to the excavator. As a mechanical machine operating with hydraulic fluids using it in such a manner may result in mechanical failure.
It is always good to consider the machine’s durability in any engineering work because a damaged machine is like an injured worker, you will spend money for repair and count lost time off work just as you will pay treatment bill and count lost time off work in any injured worker.
WORK CONVENIENCE
The space provided for swinging and the condition of the excavator and the truck made the working environment conducive to them such that none of the workers were affected by direct sunlight or rainfall during the work.
ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY
The environment is secured from any intruding following the manner the job is carried out and how the truck and excavator are positioned.
The only non-visible thing in this picture is a barricade that is supposed to sound like a warning for anyone entering the working space.
Conclusion
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