Trench excavations pose a range of safety and environmental hazards to workers. It’s a staggering fact that the fatality rate for excavation work is 112 per cent higher than the rate for general construction1. Understandably, collapses are a particular concern, with a cubic yard of soil as heavy as a bull elephant.

ALTRAD RMD Kwikform (ARMDK), a major temporary works’ systems provider, has launched a free guide, offering advice on how trench boxes can save lives and help reduce on-site costs.

Use of temporary horizontal lifelines is especially common in construction and industrial maintenance work. These are notoriously dangerous occupations, as statistics from the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)1 confirm: the construction sector saw more fatal workplace injuries than any other in 2021/22, accounting for 24 per cent of the total.