OEPS open excavation protection system

The OEPS open excavation protection system is a certified, made-for-industry barricade that completely secures the area around open excavation holes or trenches. In terms of hierarchical control processes, it is an engineered safeguard that provides complete demarcation as well as a physical prevention of a fall event for staff, other workers, members of the public and wildlife. It is a hard barricade rather than ‘soft’ or ‘visual’ demarcation and, as a result, the system can practically eliminate risk.

The system has been designed with international workplace health and safety in mind and was born from a need identified in the drilling industry servicing civil, mining, electrical, construction and telecommunications contracts. The majority of excavations in these industries are more than 3 m deep and wide enough for a person to fall into.

Designed, engineered and certified in accordance with Australian Standard AS1657, the system enables organisations to meet the occupational health and safety challenge for workers, employers, site visitors and insurance companies. The system is designed to operate as an integral part of the workplace methodology - not an after-thought - and also provides out-of-hours security from human and wildlife entry.

The unit packs flat and is portable for ease of transport and re-use. It weighs only 92.4 kg and is easy to assemble in a few minutes. Once installed, there’s no need to move or disassemble it until the works are complete.

The steel floor panels are each rated to the min 90+ kg (and easily hold 200 kg); the powder-coated aluminium side panels are each 1.8 m wide.