Ground Works

Covering an open excavation

Trench covers bridge an open trench so people can cross a footway or a site route while the works stay open. Two things on them matter more than anything else.

The load rating. These covers carry a marked maximum of 400kg, moulded onto the cover itself rather than quoted only in a catalogue, so the limit travels with the product. The figure covers people on foot and light site movement. Vehicles are outside it. A cover is not a road plate and putting a wheel on one uses it beyond what it was built and marked to take.

The edges. Anti-trip tapered edges are the whole point of a purpose-made cover. A steel plate laid over a trench creates a raised lip that catches a toe and a wheel, which turns one hazard into another.

The blow-moulded covers carry internal high-strength steel bars, so they flex under load and spread it rather than splintering the way a board does or shattering the way a rigid moulding can. A larger driveway system covers wider openings where a single cover will not span.

Protecting an exposed cable

Where a cable is above ground rather than in a trench, a moulded cable cover sits over it and says what it is. The high voltage, live cable and keep left versions carry the message on the cover, so anyone approaching reads the hazard before they reach it.

These are one-piece rotationally moulded shells on a hexagonal base, 710mm x 710mm at the foot and 1170mm high, weighing around 17kg once the base is filled with sand. The ballast is the reason they need no fixings, which matters on a surface you are not allowed to drill.

Controlling what comes past the works

Once the ground is open, the job becomes keeping traffic and people away from it at a safe speed.

Circular speed humps and modular speed ramp sections slow vehicles through a site or compound. Rubber block feet at 18kg and hi-vis ballast blocks at 20kg weigh down temporary fence panels and pedestrian barriers, which is the only way to stand a fence on a made-up surface where a stake cannot be driven. Grab handles on each side keep them liftable by one person, and they stack flat on a pallet between jobs.

Matting underfoot

A large part of this range is matting, and it does three different jobs that are easy to confuse.

• Anti-fatigue matting goes where someone stands in one position for long periods. The slight give keeps the leg muscles moving, which is what reduces the ache at the end of a shift.
• Anti-slip and scraper matting goes on routes rather than at workstations, to hold grip and take material off boots.
• Duckboard matting has open grooves so water drains straight through. It belongs in wet areas, not on a dry floor where it simply traps grit underneath.

Sizes run from 60cm x 90cm mats for a single standing position up to long rolls for a bench run or a corridor. Order to the working position rather than to the room, and butt several together where a run is needed.

For matting laid on soft ground to carry vehicles and plant, see ground protection mats, which is a different product doing a different job.