Skip to content
STEELTOETOOLS
Learning path · 4 courses · 16 h 6 min · v1.0

Excavation Crew — Learning Path

Everything the crew in and around the hole needs, in the order the job hands it to them

Start with course 1 See the whole path
Not OSHA-authorized training. Everything on this path is a free study aid. It does not satisfy any OSHA training requirement and nothing is issued at the end of it — no card, no certificate, no document of any kind. Your employer's training program comes first.

An excavation crew does four jobs that the standards treat as four separate subjects, and it does them in the same afternoon. The trench is 29 CFR 1926 subpart P. The manhole, vault or wet well at the end of the run is 1926 subpart AA or 1910.146. The trench box, the pipe and the plate that get picked and set are 1926.251 and subpart CC. And all of it happens in whatever weather the calendar handed you, with no shade and no shelter. This path puts the free courses on this site in that order, because that is the order the hazards arrive in: the hole first, then what the hole connects to, then what gets lowered into it, then the conditions it is dug in. Everything is free, nothing asks for an account, and nothing is issued at the end — the competent person designation that 1926.651(k) and 1926.652(b) rest on stays with your employer, and so does the entry authorization under 1926.1204.

What you will be able to do at the end

  • Explain why protection starts at 5 feet, what changes past 20, and when the 1926.652(a)(1) exception for stable rock genuinely applies
  • Classify soil the way the standard requires — one visual and one manual test, by a competent person, redone when conditions change
  • Choose between sloping, benching, shoring and shielding for a given depth and soil type, and say which appendix or manufacturer tabulated data you are relying on
  • Tell a confined space from a permit-required confined space, and recognize when the trench, the manhole or the vault has become one
  • Test an atmosphere in the right order, isolate the space, and name what each of the three roles owes the entry
  • Estimate a load, pick a hitch, read what the sling angle does to tension, and reject damaged gear on the spot
  • Keep people out of the swing radius and the fall zone while a box or a length of pipe is being set
  • Recognize heat and cold illness early in a crew that has no shade and no shelter, and write down the plan before the shift that needs it

How to use this path

  1. 1
    Take the courses in the order below. Each one assumes the vocabulary of the one before it — the first course explains what a competent person is, the second one uses the term without stopping.
  2. 2
    Do the 5-question quiz at the end of every part before moving on. If you miss two, reread that part: the quizzes exist to catch the chapters you skimmed.
  3. 3
    Finish each course with its 20-question final exam, then use the practice tests further down as a cold check a few days later.
  4. 4
    Your progress is stored in your own browser. No account, no email, nothing sent to us — and nothing to download at the end.

The path, step by step

Step 1 · Start here

Excavation & Trenching Safety

4 h 3 min · 4 parts · 16 chapters · 4 quizzes + final exam

The hole is the hazard that kills, so it comes first. This course works through 29 CFR 1926 subpart P the way the job meets it: why the protection threshold is 5 feet and what a registered professional engineer has to do past 20, how soil actually gets classified into Type A, B and C and who is allowed to do it, and then the four protective systems and the tabulated data behind each one. Its last part is the one crews skip and inspectors do not — access and egress, spoil setback, water, atmosphere, traffic and the daily inspection that has to happen before each shift and after every rainstorm.

Why 5 feet, what changes past 20, and the narrow stable-rock exception of 1926.652(a)(1)
Soil classification by a competent person: one visual and one manual test, redone when conditions change
Sloping, benching, shoring and shielding, and which appendix or manufacturer data authorizes each
The daily inspection under 1926.651(k): before each shift, as needed, and after every rain
  1. Part 1 — Cave-ins: why 5 feet, and what changes past 204 chapters
  2. Part 2 — Soil classification and the competent person4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — Sloping, benching, shoring and shields4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — The hazards that come with the hole4 chapters
Open “Excavation & Trenching Safety”
Step 2 · Then what the trench connects to

Confined Space Awareness

3 h 52 min · 4 parts · 16 chapters · 4 quizzes + final exam

A trench is not automatically a confined space, but the manhole, vault, wet well, lift station and casing at the end of the run usually are — and the crew that dug down to them is the crew that gets asked to go in. Take this second because the atmosphere question arrives the moment the trench reaches an existing line: 1926.651(g) already made you test for oxygen deficiency and hazardous atmospheres in the excavation, and the structure at the end of it turns that into a full permit space with an attendant, an entry supervisor and a rescue arrangement.

The difference between a confined space and a permit-required confined space, and what tips one into the other
The order of measurement: oxygen first, then flammables, then toxics — and why the order is not arbitrary
Isolation, blanking and blinding, and the physical hazards that are not atmospheric at all
Why the would-be rescuer is so often the second fatality, and what a real rescue arrangement looks like
  1. Part 1 — Confined space, or permit-required confined space?4 chapters
  2. Part 2 — Hazardous atmospheres and the order of measurement4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — Physical hazards, isolation and the three roles4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — Rescue, and why the rescuer becomes the second victim4 chapters
Open “Confined Space Awareness”
Step 3 · Then what gets lowered into it

Rigging & Lifting Fundamentals

4 h 13 min · 5 parts · 20 chapters · 5 quizzes + final exam

Trench boxes, slide rail, pipe, manhole sections, plate and pumps all arrive by machine, and the person guiding them in is standing in the one place nobody should be. This course gives the crew the part of rigging it actually uses: getting a real weight before the pick, choosing a hitch, understanding what the sling angle does to tension, and the removal criteria that let a laborer reject a sling without having to argue about it. It also covers keeping clear of the load, which is the paragraph the trench crew lives under while a box is being set.

Getting a load weight you can defend, before anything comes off the ground
Hitches, and the angle: what a 30-degree sling angle does to the tension in each leg
Daily inspection by a competent person, and the conditions that remove a sling from service immediately
Keeping clear: the fall zone, the swing radius, and who is allowed inside them
  1. Part 1 — Knowing the load4 chapters
  2. Part 2 — Slings and hitches4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — Angles, tension and the D/d ratio4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — Hardware and removal criteria4 chapters
  5. Part 5 — Making the lift4 chapters
Open “Rigging & Lifting Fundamentals”
Step 4 · Then the weather it all happens in

Heat & Cold Stress Prevention

3 h 58 min · 4 parts · 16 chapters · 4 quizzes + final exam

An open cut has no shade in July and no shelter in January, and the crew is doing heavy work in PPE at the bottom of it. This course is last because it applies to every day of the other three: how the body gains and loses heat, what the heat index and WBGT each measure and where each one is honest, what acclimatization does over the first two weeks of a heat wave or a new hire's first fortnight, wind chill and the progression of frostbite, and how to recognize heat stroke and hypothermia in a coworker before he stops being able to tell you.

Heat index versus WBGT, and why a shaded reading does not describe the bottom of a trench
Acclimatization: the first days of a heat wave and the first days of a new hire
Wind chill, wet clothing and the frostbite progression that starts with numbness
Recognizing heat stroke and hypothermia in someone else, and what to do in the first minutes
  1. Part 1 — How the body gains and loses heat4 chapters
  2. Part 2 — Heat: measuring it and controlling it4 chapters
  3. Part 3 — Cold: measuring it and controlling it4 chapters
  4. Part 4 — Recognize, respond and write it down4 chapters
Open “Heat & Cold Stress Prevention”

Alongside the courses

Check yourself: free practice tests

Same standards, questions only. Every explanation cites the paragraph it comes from.

Practice Tests
Excavation & Trenching Practice Test
Twenty-five questions on subpart P with the paragraph behind each answer — the fastest way to find out what you still guess at.
Practice Tests
Confined Space Entry Practice Test
The permit space questions, including the ones about the attendant's duties that people get wrong.
Practice Tests
Rigging Practice Test
Sling markings, inspection and removal criteria, straight from 1926.251 and 1910.184.

Bring it to the crew: printable toolbox talks

Five-minute talks on one page, ready to print for a tailgate meeting.

Toolbox Talks
Trench Protection at 5 Feet
A five-minute talk on the threshold the whole subpart hangs off.
Toolbox Talks
Spoil Piles and the 2-Foot Setback
The two feet that keep the spoil out of the hole, and the surcharge load nobody thinks about.
Toolbox Talks
Call 811 Before You Dig
The call before the shovel, and what the marks do and do not tell you.
Toolbox Talks
Water in the Trench
Water is the condition that changes the soil type mid-shift, and this is the talk for the morning after the rain.
Toolbox Talks
Excavator Swing Radius
For the crew standing next to the machine that is setting the box.

Do the math on the job

The numbers these courses talk about, worked out in your browser. Nothing you type leaves it.

Calculators
Trench Slope & Excavation Calculator
Slope width and spoil volume for a Type A, B or C cut at a given depth, with the appendix behind each number.
Calculators
Soil Type Classification Helper (A, B, C)
Walks the visual and manual test results through to a Type A, B or C classification — as documentation of the competent person's reasoning, never as a substitute for it.
Calculators
Rigging Sling Tension Calculator
What the sling angle does to the tension in each leg, for the pick you are about to make.
Calculators
Load Weight Estimator (Material & Shape)
A defensible weight for the trench box, the pipe or the plate before it comes off the truck.
Calculators
Heat Index & Work/Rest Schedule Calculator
Heat index from temperature and humidity, with the risk band and the work-rest guidance the public sources actually publish.

The paperwork, filled in

Blank templates your employer still has to review and adapt.

Permits & Forms
Excavation & Trenching Permit Generator
The permit that records the depth, the soil type, the protective system and the competent person's name before anyone gets in.
Permits & Forms
Daily Excavation Inspection Form Generator
The daily walk 1926.651(k) requires, as a form: before each shift, as conditions change, and after every rainstorm.
Permits & Forms
Confined Space Entry Permit Generator
For the manhole, vault or wet well at the end of the run — every element the permit standard requires, including the atmospheric readings and the rescue arrangement.
Permits & Forms
Confined Space Rescue Plan Generator
Written before entry, because the part crews improvise is the part that kills the second person.
Permits & Forms
Rigging Gear Inspection Form Generator
The competent person's daily sling and hardware inspection, with the removal criteria printed next to each line.
Permits & Forms
Heat Illness Prevention Plan Generator
Water, rest, shade and acclimatization written down before the heat arrives, with the sources it comes from.
Permits & Forms
Pre-Task Plan / Daily Safety Huddle Form
The 15-minute plan for the specific pick, entry or cut you are about to make, filled in with the crew rather than for them.

Short reads that clear up the usual confusions

Blog
Sloping vs Shoring vs Shielding: How to Pick Trench Protection
The three protective systems compared, with what each one asks of you in paperwork.
Blog
OSHA Soil Types A, B and C Explained
What actually separates Type A from Type B from Type C, and why the classification changes after rain.
Blog
Competent Person vs Qualified Person Under OSHA
Two words the standards use precisely, and an excavation crew needs both of them.

Who this path is for: Pipe and utility crews, sewer and water contractors, site and underground contractors, laborers and operators working in and around open cuts, foremen and crew leads, competent persons taking on excavation duties, and safety coordinators writing an excavation or entry program.

Frequently asked questions

No. No card, certificate or credential is issued for any course on this site, and nothing here counts toward a training requirement. What you get is the reading in an order that matches the work, and a score on each quiz that you can use to decide what to reread.

No, and nothing can except your employer. 1926.650(b) defines a competent person as one capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures — and that authorization is something only the employer grants, in writing or otherwise. The courses give you the knowledge half of that definition. The authority half is not ours to give.

Because the atmosphere question arrives early. 1926.651(g) already requires testing where a hazardous atmosphere could reasonably be expected in the excavation itself, and a trench that reaches an existing sewer, a vault or a casing has connected itself to a permit space. Crews meet that on day one of a tie-in, not at the end of the job.

Especially then. The person who never touches the controls is the person standing next to the load, guiding a trench box into a cut. That course covers the fall zone, the swing radius, the daily sling inspection anyone can do, and the removal criteria that let a laborer reject damaged gear without an argument.

The page adds up the four courses and shows the total. Each is roughly four hours of reading plus its quizzes and a final exam, and it is self-paced — the progress marker lives in your own browser, so you can stop anywhere and come back.

Partly. The excavation course is construction only. The confined space course covers both 1910.146 and 1926 subpart AA and says which is which, and the rigging course covers 1926.251 and 1910.184 side by side. Heat and cold have no OSHA standard of their own in either part, which the course explains.

Sources & references

Content checked against these sources — last reviewed September 9, 2026.

Not OSHA-authorized training. SteelToeTools is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by OSHA or the U.S. Department of Labor. This free educational content does not satisfy any OSHA or other regulatory training requirement, and no card, certificate, or credential is issued. Only OSHA-authorized trainers can deliver OSHA Outreach Training (10-Hour and 30-Hour) and issue DOL cards. Always follow your employer's training program and applicable federal, state, and local requirements.

By — Editorial team of SteelToeTools.com (published by LSEA SAS) Updated v1.0