Abstract

Municipal employees are often called upon to perform excavation work. To prevent accidents, the resulting trenches must be shored up. The City of Montréal's Service des travaux publics (Public Works Department) has developed an innovative shoring system for trenches no deeper than 2.5 metres, and has designed a prototype system for trenches deeper than 2.5 metres. The Institute has been asked to collaborate on the validation of this new shoring technique. This phase of the research will consist of validating the safety of the initial prototype and producing plans for the production of trial prototypes. Subsequently, the system will undergo comprehensive evaluation under different conditions, facilitating its adaptation to other settings. The results of this study will be made available to all interested municipalities.