Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators again cited a Schaumburg, Illinois-based excavating contractor for failure to follow federally mandated safety measures to protect workers from potentially deadly trench cave-ins.
Trench collapses are among the construction industry’s most lethal hazards and a recent focus of OSHA.
OSHA reported that an inspector in June observed two employees of A. Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc. in a 7-foot-deep trench in Broadview, Illinois, working on municipal sewer and water lines without adequate cave-in protection or safe ways to get in and out of the trench.
Following its investigation, OSHA cited the company for three repeat, one serious and one other-than-serious violations of federal trenching and excavation standards, and proposed penalties of $118,962. The agency cited A. Lamp Concrete in 2018 and 2021 for exposing workers to cave-in hazards.
The company has 15 days to contest the citation.