Before sewer or water-line trenching, agree on utility locating, permits, site access, barriers and the contractor’s excavation-safety responsibilities. The employer’s competent person evaluates excavation hazards and required protective measures. Owners should keep occupants away and report changing conditions, not enter the trench or prescribe a shoring design. A locate ticket does not establish that a trench is safe.
What must be settled before work begins?
Identify the proposed work zone, known private facilities, traffic or pedestrian routes, required permits and utility-locate responsibilities. OSHA 1926.651 requires the estimated location of underground installations to be determined before excavation and addresses contacting utility owners and safely locating facilities as work approaches them.
Arizona's separate 811 obligations and local street or easement permissions also need attention. Our utility-easement and right-of-way guide explains the access distinction. A locate response addresses buried facilities; it does not evaluate soil stability, atmospheric hazards or trench protection.
Who evaluates trench conditions?
The employer's competent person carries out the excavation inspections required by 1926.651(k): before work, as needed during the shift, and after rainstorms or other hazard-increasing occurrences when employee exposure is reasonably anticipated. Water accumulation, nearby structures, spoil and equipment are among the hazards addressed by the excavation standard.
OSHA 1926.652 governs protective systems and their exceptions. Do not apply a simple depth slogan as proof that entry is safe; shallower excavations can still present a cave-in hazard. The contractor must evaluate the actual excavation and select the required method. This checklist is not a shoring or sloping design.
What should occupants and the manager know?
Record these arrangements in the job scope:
- Who controls access and maintains barriers when workers leave.
- How occupants reach required entrances and exits safely.
- Where vehicles, deliveries and landscaping must stay clear.
- Which contact receives a report of rain, water, movement or damaged barriers.
- How the contractor determines when work may safely resume.
- Who restores the surface after inspection and approved backfill.
Keep children, tenants and pets away from the excavation. Do not climb in to inspect a repair or move protective equipment. If work exposes a manhole or wet well, confined-space requirements present a separate decision. Use the sewer replacement overview for the repair sequence and keep its schedule separate from the safety determination.