Review of Regulations and Guides for Excavation and Trenches—Comparison with the Québec Safety Code for the Construction Industry

Abstract

With all serious and fatal accidents occurring every year in excavation and trench work worldwide, governmental authorities recognize the dangerous nature of excavation and trench work. Regulations have been written containing a series of measures to be followed in order to protect workers in excavation and trench work. This paper sums up a review of regulations and guides in excavation and trench work of several countries. All involve a soil classification based on the description of the soils and the hydraulic conditions and the adoption of safe slopes based on the classification, while, in its current version, the Québec Safety Code for the Construction Industry (S-2.1, r.6) does not mention this important information. Thus, there is a need to update section 3.15.3 of S-2.1, r.6. Since a proposal for soil classification, taking into account the impact of the soft sensitive clay in Québec was not accepted by the review committee of S-2.1, r.6 in 1989, a research project will be submitted soon for funding to review section 3.15.3 of S-2.1, r.6.