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Rant: That Trench Collapse At Pompeii Turned Me Around On Site Safety
I used to think all the safety gear and protocols at digs were overkill until I saw a partial trench collapse at a site near Herculaneum last summer. A three-foot wall gave way and buried the laser transit we were using, and it took us two hours to dig it out - if someone had been standing there, they'd be dead. Has anyone else ever had a close call at a dig that changed how you prep your site?
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cora5189d ago
Wait, a three foot wall collapse took two hours to dig out a transit? That's terrifying... I mean, I've seen those laser transits and they're not tiny, but the dirt must have been packed tight or something. What kind of soil were you working in? Makes me wonder if there's a way to spot those weak spots before they go...
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avery2195d ago
Clay. Pure nasty clay. We hit a wet seam of it running vertical through the bank. That stuff sets up like concrete once it dries out a little. The top three feet looked like regular sandy loam but that hidden vein was the trap. By the time we saw the crack it was already too late. The whole face just slid off in one solid slab. Made me real careful about probing ahead with a steel rod ever since.
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betty_kelly99d ago
Honestly that three foot thing bugs me too. I keep wondering if the soil type made the wall act more like concrete than loose dirt, because that's the only way two hours of digging makes sense. Did you ever figure out if there was some clay or silt content in there that was holding it together like that?
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