SEGURANÇA EM TRABALHOS DE ABERTURA DE VALAS NA CONSTRUÇÃO CIVIL EM PORTUGAL

Abstract

The construction industry has its owncharacteristics, which affect strongly the results in termsof accidents at work. Accidents by cave-in are one of themost common in construction, accounting in Portugal forabout 10% of deaths recorded in the sector. It is anevidence that among those accidents, there stand the oneswhich occur at work digging trenches. This paper beginsby reviewing the most significant occupational hazardsassociated with excavation works in construction. Themain causes of accidents in trenches excavation inPortugal are presented. The national legislation on thesubject, as well as the most important technical measuresto implement in that kind of work, either in project or inthe construction stage, are described. The most importantconclusions reached in two recent studies done inPortugal on the subject are presented and discussed.Index Terms - Excavation , safety, trench.