How To Balance Speed and Safety in Utility Excavation, Without Slowing Your Crew Down

It is the job of the excavating crew to keep the machines moving quickly while maintaining safety. 

Crews from the utility company fight with one another all the time. On one side, deadlines are pressing; on the other, safety regulations. And somewhere in the middle, your operators are expected to dig a clean trench, stabilize the walls, and load trucks efficiently, all at the same time.

Fortunately, speed and safety need not be mutually exclusive in used excavators when it comes to trenching. Improved placement techniques and machine technology, combined with the right equipment, mean crews can move faster, just because they are working closer. Less rework, no site shutdowns, and no wasted passes.

The following are three proven methods to maximize excavator performance on utility trenching projects while maintaining safety standards.

Direct impact of bucket selection and trench shielding on cycle times

Most crews will use a general-purpose bucket by default. It is adaptable, well-known, and somewhat effective. However, on utility trenching operations, a general-purpose bucket can usually be the slowest part of a crew.

A dedicated trenching bucket is smaller and longer than a general-purpose bucket. That shape provides for cleaner, deeper cuts; less over-digging; and much less backfill required later. What you don’t need to dig is what you don’t waste time and fuel.

The choice of the bucket edge is also important. A heavy-duty bucket with teeth will break through hard, compacted ground more quickly. If you want to do more delicate work with less disturbance to nearby materials, or if you’re working in softer ground, a smooth-lipped bucket will offer a cleaner cut. For jobs that involve multiple types of buckets, a quick coupler can be a half-day process, but experienced operators say it can save nearly an hour per shift.

Safety & speed are most directly linked in trench shielding. A correctly sized trench box maintains the stability of the walls, maintains an open trench, and allows the workers to feel confident enough to operate at full speed. Undersized boxes will cause over-excavation, thus wasting time and fuel. If a box is too wide for the machine to be able to lift, it poses other issues. If the right shield is selected for the project at the outset, it eliminates the need for unnecessary delays caused by daily decision-making.

How smarter spoil placement and truck loading can boost your entire operation

One of those scenarios where the little things add up over the course of a shift is spoil management. Spoil piles must be set back from the edges of the trench to avoid overloading of the walls of the trench as per regulation, but within these limits, the placement determines the speed of the rest of the works.

The double-cut is effective on deep utility paths with short swing distances. Construct a smaller staging pile near the trench, then join the machine’s wide reach to swing material out to a secondary main pile further away. This will ensure the immediate work area remains clear, wall pressures are reduced, and access for other workers, vehicles, and supply movement around the site is maintained whilst complying with the standoff requirements.

A great deal of time goes by unnoticed when you’re loading a truck. Most operators don’t realize how much the positioning of the truck matters when compared to the trench. Too close will cause problems of safety risk and swing arc. If you go too far, each cycle you are adding another machine move. The correct position reduces swing arc and will prevent the truck from being in the way of the spoil pile and trench edge.

On loading, begin at the corners of the truck bed that are farthest from the cab and proceed towards the cab. This will spread the load over you gradually, not requiring the driver to move between passes, and will ensure that the loading sequence doesn’t get bumpy from the first bucket to the last.

Leveraging Work Modes and Grade Control Technology

Most excavators have the ability to operate in various work modes and incorporate grade control technology. Most excavators can be set into different work modes and can be equipped with grade control technology.

Modern excavators come with hydraulic management systems that most operators do not use to their full potential. One of the quickest ways to increase production and fuel efficiencies in the same job is to learn when to switch between work modes.

What’s important is the relationship between hydraulic flow and hydraulic pressure. In addition to the flow rate, the speed of the bucket and swing, and the cycle time. Force, breakout force, lifting capacity, and control precision are driven by pressure. Load-sensing hydraulic systems on existing equipment automatically control this relationship, but work mode selection still optimises the system toward the correct relationship for the operation being performed at the time.

When you are in the early stages of high production in a trench and moving volume is a matter of the greatest concern, you are looking for as much hydraulic flow as you can get. 

If the work is to be performed by grading the bottom of the trench, placing pipe or engaging in close work around existing utilities, the system should be weighted to pressure and control. Eliminates the guesswork and provides the correct setting balance to the operator by preprogramming work modes, eliminating the need to change settings many times during the day.

Advancing Precision with Grade Control Technology

Grade control technology is taken one step further. Eliminating the manual grade check cycle is one of the most frequent causes of lost time on utility jobs and is eliminated by systems that enable operators to import a 3D design, monitor the bucket’s position in real time, and guarantee the target grade is achieved on the first pass. 

Climbing out of the machine to check the grade, with a laser or rod, climbing back in, adjusting, and climbing out again in the middle of the day can add up to hours wasted throughout the day. Grade control technology removes all of that loop, and instead, it cuts grades faster and more accurately and even reduces or removes the need for a site-dedicated grade checker.

Daily inspections are important for safeguarding your staff and your schedule

No digging work is completely done without any changes. Unexpected situations, utility conflicts, and equipment problems are a part of the job. But many of the issues which can disrupt timetables are not insurmountable, just unnoticed until they get serious.

Small problems are identified through daily visits and equipment checks and can be addressed before they get costly. They are not catastrophic situations at the inspection stage: a developing hydraulic leak, a bucket tooth that is nearing failure, or a trench box that’s moved overnight. When found in a live trench, all of them are much more expensive.

To ensure regular and reliable trenching operations, it is important to ensure that used excavators are well-maintained and have up-to-date service records, and hydraulic systems are fully operational. What makes a machine productive on a utility job is its reliability at 7 am and its continued smooth operation at the end of the day, not peak specs under ideal conditions.

This Real Takeaway covers utility excavation speed and safety.

Productivity of trenching does not depend simply on the speed of the excavator’s movement. Its definition is related to accuracy, consistency, and the number of times you need to stop and correct your work.

When it comes to choosing a bucket, where to put spoils, how to set up a machine, and how to maintain it every day, the crews that move the fastest on utility jobs are the ones who make the best decisions, not the crews with the biggest engines running at full capacity. Those decisions minimize over-digging, reworking, and unplanned downtime and keep a site moving at the pace that works until the end of the day.

Looking for a reliable used excavator for your next utility or trenching project? MY-Equipment stocks a wide range of used track excavators out of Houston, Texas , inspected, maintained, and available for immediate sale. Browse our excavator inventory or contact our team to find the right machine for your operation.

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