NU-SAF-107 — EXCAVATION & TRENCHING

Tier 2/3/4 — Procedure + Field Card + Daily Inspection Form · Rev 0.1 DRAFT — goes to Rev 1.0 Issued when §15 items 1–2 (competent person named + training confirmed) are closed · Owner: Field Supervisor Parent: NU-SAF-100 §5. Governing standard: OSHA 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P (1926.650–.652 + Appendices A–C). Unblocks: NU-QAL-601-A Card C4 (Mini-Ex) blocks trenching deeper than 5 ft until this document exists. This document closes that block — a certified C4 operator may dig past 5 ft, but only under this standard, and only with the competent person's signed inspection.

THE GATE

Nobody's boots go below grade until the competent person has inspected the excavation TODAY and signed the Daily Trench Inspection (NU-SAF-107-F). At 5 ft deep, nobody enters without a protective system — slope, bench, shore, or shield. No signed inspection, no entry. No protection at 5 ft, no entry. There is no hurry-up exception.

Why it matters: a cubic yard of soil weighs about 3,000 pounds — a pickup truck. A collapse buries a man's chest under two or three of them in one second, and the crew cannot dig him out fast enough with shovels or with the machine. Trench collapse is the one hazard in Nova's work that routinely kills the rescuer too. Subpart P is written in the blood of small crews exactly like ours, and OSHA treats an unprotected trench with no written program as a willful-citation conversation.

1. THE TWO NUMBERS THAT RUN THIS DOCUMENT

Measure the depth. Do not eyeball it. Depth is from the lowest point of the dig to grade.

A trench is a dig that is deeper than it is wide (and 15 ft wide or less). A pit, a vault hole, a pool dig — those are excavations, and Subpart P covers them all. Nova's rule is simpler than OSHA's: the ladder rule and the inspection rule apply to every dig a person enters, trench or not.

2. THE COMPETENT PERSON

Subpart P turns on one person. The competent person (1926.650(b)) is someone who can identify existing and predictable cave-in hazards AND has the authority to shut the dig down and pull people out on the spot — no phone call to the office first, no "let me check."

• Nova's designated competent person for excavation is: [Adam: name the competent person — register NU-GOV-000 Part 6 item 3, open since 7/27/26].
• Backup competent person (for when the primary is not on site): [Adam: name].
• No competent person on site = no one enters any excavation that day. The machine can dig; boots stay on grade.
• "Whoever's senior" is not a competent person. The designation is by name, in writing, on this page, and the person named needs excavation competent-person training — [Adam: confirm training status or book the class].
• The competent person classifies the soil (§3), picks the protective system (§4), signs the daily inspection (§5), and owns the stop-work call. Anyone on the crew can call stop-work under NU-SAF-100; in a trench, the competent person's stop is not debatable and not appealable in the field.

3. SOIL TYPE (Appendix A) — AND WHAT GEORGIA GROUND ACTUALLY IS

The soil type sets how much protection the dig needs. The competent person classifies it using at least one visual test and at least one manual test (Appendix A requires both), and writes the type and the basis on the inspection form.

The Georgia Piedmont reality — read this before calling anything Type A:

• Red clay looks strong. Appendix A says it stops being Type A the moment it is fissured, wet, previously disturbed, or subject to vibration. Nova digs next to roads, over old utility trenches, with a mini-ex shaking the ground. That kills Type A on almost every Nova site.
• Utility corridor = previously disturbed = Type B at best. If there's a marked line anywhere near the dig, somebody dug there before you.
• Rounded cobble and loose gravel are granular soils — Type C under Appendix A. (Angular gravel can technically classify Type B, but Nova doesn't gamble the distinction: every cobble dig is a Type C dig.) The 8–10 ft pool digs in cobble are Type C digs.
• Water seeping into the dig = Type C, whatever it was an hour ago. Reclassify and re-inspect.
• Layered soil is classified by its weakest layer. Clay over cobble is a Type C dig.

The Nova default: if Nova hasn't tested it, Nova digs it as Type C. Type C is never a wrong answer on safety — it only costs lay-back width. Guessing Type A costs a man.

4. PROTECTIVE SYSTEMS AT 5 FT — SLOPE, BENCH, SHORE, OR SHIELD

Pick one before the dig starts, not after it's deep. The competent person picks; the operator digs to the pick.

4.1 Slope or bench (the pool-dig answer)

Lay the walls back per the soil type. The numbers are horizontal run per foot of depth, each side:

Why it matters at the quote stage: an 8-ft-deep pool dig in cobble (Type C) with a 10-ft-wide bottom needs a hole 34 ft wide at the top (10 + 12 + 12). If the backyard doesn't have 34 ft, the job needs a shield or engineered shoring — and that changes the price and the plan before the machine mobilizes, not on site. Estimating checks lay-back room against the lot on every dig 5 ft or deeper. The lay-back check (depth × soil type × lot width) is written on the quote/work-order — a required line on NU-FLD-210 when built; until then it goes in the bid notes. [Adam: confirm where the pre-mobilization lay-back check is recorded until NU-FLD-210 exists.] Pairs with NU-FLD-214 when it exists.

Benching is steps cut into the wall instead of one continuous slope — same total lay-back envelope, and no benching in Type C soil at all (Appendix B). In cobble, you slope; you don't bench.

4.2 Shield (trench box)

• Used per the manufacturer's tabulated data — depth rating, soil type rating. The data sheet rides with the box.
• Digging below the bottom of the box: maximum 2 ft, and only if the box is rated for the full depth and there is no sign of soil loss below the box (1926.652(g)(2)).
• Nobody is in the box while it is being installed, moved, or pulled (1926.652(g)(1)).
• The ladder goes inside the box. Protection you have to leave to exit isn't protection.
• Does Nova own a trench box or shoring today? [Adam: fill — what protective equipment Nova owns or rents, and where the tabulated data sheets live]. Until answered, every 5 ft+ dig is a sloped dig.

4.3 Shoring

Hydraulic or timber shoring per manufacturer's tabulated data or Appendix C. Nova does not improvise shoring from scrap lumber and hope. If the job needs shoring Nova doesn't have, the job waits.

4.4 "Stable rock"

The only no-protection exemption at 5 ft+. It means solid natural mineral that stays vertical while exposed — not "hard red clay," not "it looks solid." In the Piedmont it almost never applies. Only the competent person can call it, and if there is any doubt, it is not stable rock.

5. THE DAILY INSPECTION (this is the record the gate runs on)

1926.651(k): the competent person inspects the excavation, the adjacent areas, and the protective system —

1. Daily, before the start of work — before anyone enters.
2. As needed through the shift — the dig changes as it deepens.
3. After every rainstorm or other hazard-increasing occurrence — rain, nearby vibration (traffic, compactor, the mini-ex itself), a new crack in the wall or the ground above it, water showing up, spoil creeping toward the edge.

Any sign of trouble — tension cracks along the top edge, sloughing walls, water, bulging at the base — everyone out until it's fixed and re-inspected. Getting out of a trench is free. Getting dug out is not.

The record is NU-SAF-107-F (Tier 4, below). One per excavation per day, signed by the competent person, photo of the protective system attached. A gate that produces no record is a suggestion — no signed 107-F, the entry never happened legally, and the crew is exposed on the worst audit day of its life.

6. SPOIL, MACHINES, AND LOADS AT THE EDGE

• Spoil and equipment stay 2 ft back from the edge, minimum (1926.651(j)(2)). The spoil pile's toe, not its center. Better rule where room allows: set spoil back at least as far as the dig is deep.
• Why it matters: spoil at the lip is surcharge weight pushing the wall in, plus a rock rolling onto the man below. Both are the same one-second event.
• Nobody under the bucket. Nobody under any suspended load. Ever (1926.651(e)). The operator swings the bucket around the dig, not over it, when a man is in it.
• Mini-ex tracks stay back from the edge — the machine is both surcharge and vibration. A machine working the dig with a man below grade is a spotter-required operation, and so is any approach where the operator can't see the edge (1926.651(f)) — spotter rules per NU-SAF-116: B-SPOTTER badge (NU-QAL-601-A) once the badge board is live; until then the Crew Lead names the spotter by name on the JSA.
• Dig is in or beside a road: traffic control per NU-SAF-105 goes up first, same as always. The cone standard already covers open holes; this document adds the below-grade rules, not new cone rules.

7. GETTING IN AND OUT

• 4 ft deep or more: a ladder, ramp, or stairway within 25 ft of lateral travel of every worker (1926.651(c)(2)). Deep dig, two workers spread out — that can mean two ladders.
• The ladder extends 3 ft above the top of the dig (1926.1053(b)(1)) and is tied off or footed so it can't kick out.
• The ladder stands inside the protected zone — inside the box, or on the sloped face's protected floor. An egress route through unprotected wall is not egress.
• Earthen ramps for people must be cut so a man can walk them upright; structural ramps (built ones) are designed by the competent person (1926.651(c)(1)). Equipment ramps are not people ramps unless the competent person says so.
• Climbing the bucket is not egress. It is a points event.

8. WATER

1926.651(h): no one works in an excavation with accumulated water, or where water is accumulating, unless precautions are in place — water removal equipment running and monitored by the competent person, or a shield/support system rated for it.

• Rain starts: everyone out. Rain stops: nobody back in until the competent person re-inspects and re-signs (§5 — a rainstorm is an automatic re-inspection trigger).
• Water seeping from the walls: the soil just became Type C (§3). Out, reclassify, re-protect, re-inspect.
• A pump in the hole is not permission to be in the hole with rising water. The pump has to be winning, and the competent person has to be watching it.

9. UNDERGROUND UTILITIES

The locate, tolerance zone (24 in, hand tools only), and pothole standard already exist — NU-FLD-200 ch. 4 and NU-FLD-220 Phase 0 own that layer; Day 1–2 Book Cards 4 & 7 are the training layer, and Card 05-A's lunch strip carries the daily ticket-life check. This document does not restate them. Strike protection setup is HDD Operator Book Card 2; strike response is NU-SAF-110 (the program) and HDD Operator Book Card 16 (the field card). Bore pits follow NU-FLD-220 phase gates.

What Subpart P adds (1926.651(b)):

• Utilities are located and marked before the dig opens, and exposed lines are supported and protected while the dig is open — a live line hanging unsupported across an open pit is a violation and a break waiting to happen.
• Approaching the marked line, the exact location is established by safe means — hand dig or hydrovac per the existing pothole standard, never the bucket.

10. ATMOSPHERE IN DEEP PITS AND VAULT HOLES

1926.651(g): where a dig is more than 4 ft deep and a hazardous atmosphere exists or could reasonably be expected — near a landfill, a sewer, a gas line, a fuel tank, or anywhere organic material or a leak could collect — the atmosphere is tested before anyone enters, and as often as needed after. Where a hazardous atmosphere exists or may develop, emergency rescue equipment is on site and attended.

• Gas and sewer proximity is the trigger Nova will actually see. Deep pit next to a marked gas line = test first.
• Vaults, manholes, and handholes are a different animal — body entry makes them permit-required confined spaces. That is NU-SAF-109 (issued 8/1/26), and it governs: no part of your body breaks the plane of the opening — not a head to look — until 109's air-test, permit, and attendant requirements are met, which today means NOBODY ENTERS. Work it from grade or call the Supervisor.
• Does Nova own a gas meter? [Adam: fill — 4-gas meter ownership and calibration status; needed before any deep pit near gas or sewer, and mandatory for NU-SAF-109].

11. DIGGING NEXT TO STRUCTURES (the pool-dig add-on)

Pool digs put an 8–10 ft hole a few feet from a house footing. 1926.651(i): where the dig could undermine a footing, foundation, sidewalk, pavement, or wall, a support system (shoring, bracing, underpinning) protects it — and digging below the level of an adjacent footing is not permitted unless a support system is in place, the dig is in stable rock, or a registered professional engineer has signed off.

Field translation: draw a line down and out at 45° from the bottom edge of the nearest footing. If the dig cuts that line, stop at the plan stage and get the engineering answer — before the machine mobilizes, in the quote, not in the backyard with the wall open.

12. NU-SAF-107-C — TRENCH ENTRY FIELD CARD (Tier 3 — print, laminate, truck)

Before any boots go below grade:

1. Utilities located, marked, potholed — Day 1–2 Cards 4 & 7. Exposed lines supported.
2. Competent person on site. No competent person = no entry today.
3. Measure the depth. Tape, not eyeball.
4. Competent person classifies the soil — one visual test + one manual test. Not tested = Type C.
5. Under 5 ft: competent person examines, finds no sign of cave-in, writes it down. 5 ft or more: slope / bench / box IN before entry. Type C = 1.5 ft back per foot down, each side. No benching in Type C.
6. Spoil and machine 2 ft back from the edge, minimum.
7. 4 ft or deeper: ladder in, 3 ft above the top, within 25 ft of every man, inside the protection.
8. Deep pit near gas, sewer, tanks, fill ground: test the air before entry.
9. Competent person signs NU-SAF-107-F + photo of the protection. No signed form, no entry.
10. Rain / water / vibration / cracks / sloughing → everyone out. Re-inspect, re-sign, then back in.
11. Nobody under the bucket. Nobody rides the bucket out.
12. Vault / manhole / handhole: nobody enters past the shoulders. Work from grade or call the Supervisor.

13. NU-SAF-107-F — DAILY TRENCH INSPECTION (Tier 4 — one per excavation per day; lands in the app)

14. PROOF & RECORDS

Accountability tie-in (NU-PPL-403) — proposed, pending Adam (403 does not carry these rows yet): entering an excavation 5 ft+ with no protective system, or any entry with no signed 107-F = Class C (6 pts), repeat = Final. Spoil/setback, ladder, or bucket-riding miss = Class A (1 pt). Competent person authorizing entry against this standard = Final conversation, not points.

DONE WHEN

• Adam has named the competent person (and backup) in §2 and their training is confirmed.
• Every crew that digs can answer four questions cold: What are the 4 ft and 5 ft rules? What type is this soil and why? Where's the ladder? Who signed the form today?
• A signed NU-SAF-107-F with a photo exists for every excavation entered, findable in the app.
• The first pool dig runs start to finish with lay-back planned at the quote stage — no field improvisation.
• NU-QAL-601-A Card C4 is updated to reference this document as the condition for >5 ft trenching.
• NU-GOV-000 register updated — NU-SAF-107 added to the built table, the §4.1 gap row closed, and Part 6 item 3 marked answered.

NEVER

• NEVER enter an excavation 5 ft or deeper without a protective system in place. Not to grab a tool, not "just for a second." Most trench deaths are the just-for-a-second entry.
• NEVER enter any excavation without today's signed NU-SAF-107-F.
• NEVER call soil Type A on a Nova site without the competent person's tested, written classification. Default is Type C.
• NEVER bench in Type C soil.
• NEVER put spoil, the machine, or parked steel inside 2 ft of the edge.
• NEVER work under a bucket or suspended load, or ride the bucket in or out.
• NEVER work in accumulating water, or re-enter after rain before re-inspection.
• NEVER break the plane of a vault, manhole, or handhole opening with any part of your body — NU-SAF-109 governs, and until its §9 program items are closed, nobody enters, period.
• NEVER attempt a rescue by jumping into a collapsed trench. Call 911, get the location from the work order, keep everyone else out of the hole. A second man in the hole is the second victim, every time.

15. WHAT THIS DOCUMENT NEEDS FROM ADAM

1. Name the competent person, by name, and a backup (§2). This is register NU-GOV-000 Part 6 item 3, open since 7/27/26, and this document does not function without it — every gate in it routes through that person.
2. Confirm or book competent-person training for whoever is named. The designation without the training won't survive an audit or an incident.
3. Answer the equipment question (§4.2): does Nova own or rent a trench box or shoring, and where are the tabulated data sheets? Until answered, every 5 ft+ dig must be sloped — which the pool-dig lay-back math says will not always fit the lot.
4. 4-gas meter (§10): confirm ownership and calibration, or buy one. It is also the hard prerequisite for NU-SAF-109.
5. Approve the proposed NU-PPL-403 point classes in §14 so the enforcement rows exist in the points system, not just here.
6. Approve the Type-C default rule (§3) as Nova policy — it is stricter than OSHA requires and it is the correct default for a crew that doesn't carry a soils lab.

NU-SAF-107 · Rev 1.0 · Nova Underground · Parent: NU-SAF-100 · Governing: 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P · Unblocks NU-QAL-601-A Card C4 >5 ft trenching · Uncontrolled when printed.