A new, modular aluminium shoring system, which makes it much easier to protect workers in trenches, is now available from Kennards Hire across Australia.
Trench Mate, which was previously available from Kennards Hire in NSW and Victoria, can now also be hired from the company in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
Trench Mate is half the weight of older, steel shoring systems, and is easy to transport, set up and dismantle.
Modular components can be stacked flat on the tray of a ute and carried on to a site and erected by two men. Completed sections are lowered into the trench with an excavator.
Trench Mate can be used in trenches up to three metres deep.
Trench Mate complies with the safety requirements of A.S.4744.1-2000, and is essential protection for plumbers and drainers, electricians, and water, gas and telecommunications installers and maintenance workers.
Vermont Plumbing, a contractor to Sydney Water, used Trench Mate while replacing a sewer manhole, which had been eaten away by sewer gases.
Jon Waller and his crew, Mark Plummer and Aaron Loxley, constructed two sections, each 2.4 metres square, with one 1.2 metres high and the other 600cm high.
The four sides of each section were fitted together in the small backyard of the house where the manhole was located, and then lifted by an excavator into the trench.
“This was the best option by far,” said Jon said.
“We had no room for benching and timber shoring would not have been as quick or as easy as the aluminium system.
“Two of us were able to carry the modular panels and put them together or dismantle them in 10 minutes.”
