The Safety Of Persons Working In Small Diameter Shafts And Test Pits For Geotechnical Engineering Purposes – Code of Practice 2007

CONTENTS

FOREWORD iii

1 SITE INVESTIGATION PRACTICE l

2 SCOPE 3

3 DEFINITIONS 4

4 RELEVANT LEGISLATION 6

4.1 Occupational Health and Safety Act 6

4.2 Specific requirements 7

4.3 Documentation 9

5 PERSONNEL 12

5.1 Duties of employment towards personnel 12

5.2 Duties of personnel towards employers 12

5.3 Training of personnel 12

5.4 Site induction training 13

5.5 Required experience 13

6 RISK ASSESSMENT 15

6.1 General 15

6.2 Planning 15

6.2.1 Geotechnical investigations 15

6.2.2 Piling 16

6.3 Risk assessment process 17

6.3.1 General 17

6.3.2 Site investigation 17

6.3.3 Piling 19

7 PLANT AND EQUIPMENT 20

7.1 Descending into test pits 20

7.2 Descending into shafts 22

8 PROCEDURES 24

8.1 Preparatory work 24

8.2 Profiling of test pits and shafts 25

8.2.1 General 25

8.2.2 Test pits 26

8.2.3 Profiling shafts 27

8.3 Cleaning shafts for piling 28

8.4 Attendance to persons working below surface 28

8.5 Unattended holes 29

8.6 Other precautions 29

9 EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS 31

9.1 Emergency plan 31

9.2 First aid 31

9.3 Rescue methods 32

10 SUMMARY 33

11 REFERENCES 35

APPENDIX A: TYPICAL HAZARDS 36

APPENDIX B: TYPICAL FLOW CHART FOR A RISK ASSESSMENT 39

APPENDIX C: SAFETY EQUIPMENT 40

APPENDIX D: EXAMPLE OF A SHORING SYSTEM 41

APPENDIX E: GASES 42