Excavation systems planning design and safety
by Joe M. Turner

Excavation systems planning design and safety represents a culmination of knowledge that I have gained through 10 years of working as a construction engineer for contractors constructing pipelines and water and

wastewater treatment projects and 16 years of developing an engineering firm that provided shoring design to contractors and shoring manufacturers.

During the construction years I estimated excavation projects, planned the work, and worked in the trench with the workers.

In the engineering years I was fortunate to be able to work with hundreds of underground contractors, the largest and the smallest, all over the United States.

This wide range of exposure to level of knowledge and approach to excavation work and safety that these contractors had was priceless.

Excavation systems planning design and safety: During that entire period, I never worked on the “other side of the street” for owners and civil design firms, but I was continually working with them on excavation work issues.

Later in my career I worked with lawyers to help them understand excavation issues.

Throughout this career I accumulated my basic knowledge and understanding of how all parts of the excavation industry functioned and interacted.

All of us involved in the industry pulled basic excavation and safety technology information from wherever we could find it.

We searched it out, adapted it to our needs, and used it to construct safer and more efficient excavations.