Jobsite-ready trench shields, trench boxes, and shoring systems are showcased in the following company profiles by author Daniel C. Brown in his feature-length article, “A Life or Death Matter.” Part 3 of this continuing series illustrates the products and services of trench safety companies with a focus upon product offerings, as well as situational applications, installation equipment, and crew considerations at the excavation site.
A Life or Death Matter (Part 3) By Daniel C. Brown
Available Equipment
Speed Shore offers a wide variety of shoring and shielding, in both aluminum and steel. The company’s aluminum hydraulic shoring includes vertical shores, waler systems and shoring shields. Speed Shore’s patented “shoring shields” combine the benefits of aluminum hydraulic shoring with the solid-wall security of a static shield. These shoring shields feature “speed struts,” which incorporate hydraulic cylinders and return springs within telescoping steel sleeves. The struts allow for three- and four-sided trench support. Quick-connect pins and hydraulic fittings permit rapid assembly and disassembly, as well as changeover to larger or small Speed Struts.
Speed Shore also offers a modular aluminum panel system, which comprises modular panels, end members, and adjustable spreaders. The system is light enough for transport by pickup truck and can be quickly configured for two-, three-, or four-sided applications. A two-man crew can readily assemble the system by hand for rapid placement in the trench by rubber-tired backhoe or mini-excavator.
Speed Shore’s Aluminum Panel Shields are specifically designed for contractors, plumbers, municipalities, and utilities that generally use a rubber-tired backhoe or a light excavator. These aluminum panel shields are available in a wide variety of sizes and configurations. They have steel lifting and pulling eyes, heavy-duty stacking sockets, and foam-filled walls. A variety of spreader options are available.
This extruded aluminum trench shield features a 2-inch-thick wall.
Speed Shore also offers aluminum panel shields with a steel frame, which the company says creates the only true aluminum-wall drag box in the industry. The product is designed to work with rubber-tired backhoes or light excavators.
Steel trench shielding is also available from Speed Shore. Standard shields are available with 3-inch to 8-inch-thick walls in a full array of heights and lengths. This line of steel shields includes single-walled shields for less extreme lateral pressures, specially designed manhole shields, and heavy-duty double-wall shields.
Speed Shore’s Tuff-Lite steel trench shields—one of the newest additions to the company’s lineup—are designed for contractors and municipalities that use lighter excavators, but require higher capacities for deeper trenches or poor soil conditions. These shields are available in a full range of sizes and configurations.
Speed Shore’s single-wall trench boxes are designed for use in applications that are usually shallow in depth or where high capacity is not required. They use lower pipe clearance and smaller spreaders, and require lighter machines for lifting and dragging.
Speed Shore says its slide-rail system is a modular, high-capacity shoring system for use in difficult excavations. Double-walled steel panels slide into vertical tracked rails as soil is excavated. The company says the slide rail system offers a cost-effective alternative to “tight-sheeting” methods. Modular components allow for lighter equipment to handle the system, which is designed for utility installations, bore pits, point repairs, tank pits, vaults, and shafts.
Trench Shoring Services distributes rental equipment through a nation-wide rental fleet. The company says it stocks more than 35 sizes and strength rated trench shields. Stacking sections for depths to 40 feet are provided out of standard inventory. Spreader width options ranging from 2 feet to 12 feet are available from standard inventory. Special spreaders up to 20 feet wide are made with a minimum of two hours’ notice, says the company.
“We offer a complete line to fit any shoring application,” says Josh Kundel, trench division manager at Kundel Industries. “You can go as light as the hydraulic aluminum jacks, which are designed for a single-man application, up to steel boxes as large as 12 feet high by 50 feet long, that we have built for special projects.”
Kundel says his company is the only one in the industry that solid welds its boxes, supports the outside skin 16 inches on center, uses solid forged steel sockets, has internal pounding members and has an internal stacking system. “Our shield is probably the most difficult in the industry to produce, and we have invested in high-end tooling to make a precision product,” says Kundel.
