Managing cemetery safety in challenging seasonal ground conditions – top 3 things to consider
Changeable British seasons bring with them weather which makes for challenging ground conditions in cemeteries. We are frequently asked how best to tackle such conditions and ensure the safety of both staff and the general public when ground becomes heavily waterlogged or frozen.
When tackling waterlogged ground, there are three main problems to be addressed:
1. Accessing the site with heavy machinery
Heavy, potentially dangerous machinery and loose, waterlogged or frozen and slippery soil are not good bedfellows. In many UK cemeteries, you also have the challenge of uneven ground and multiple obstacles to bypass whilst accessing a site too.
There is always a product to help though and experience helps to know which to keep close by. We advocate the use of appropriate temporary access ground protection boards, a simple solution but a very effective one. These protect grass and turf, minimise reinstatement costs and prevent vehicles or machinery from sliding or getting bogged down. Varying thicknesses and textures of ground protection boards are one of the most useful things to have in your arsenal, allowing you to select the right size, shape and surface for the access to each plot.
2. Mitigating potential ground collapse
Ground collapse is a very real danger when the cohesive ability of the soil is significantly reduced by excess water, or in some cases overly dry, sandy or unstable soil.
Finding the right solution to ensure the safety of staff and the general public at the graveside is the foundation upon which Teleshore has been built. Our first ever product to market was the industry’s first truly specific grave shoring system for cemeteries; prior to our telescopic grave shoring solution being developed and produced for sale in 1994, it was common for grave collapse to be tackled with solutions adapted from other industries such as civil engineering. This adaptation worked to an extent but didn’t always meet the specific challenges posed by cemeteries.
Our founders used their backgrounds in safety management and civil engineering to create an industry-specific solution, introducing the telescopic grave shoring system and subsequently our popular hydraulic grave shoring system along with a number of other solutions.
Today, more than ever, choosing the right grave shoring system for your burials and ground conditions means that you can reduce or remove the need for any personnel to enter the excavation, significantly mitigating against risks to the digging team.
Hydraulic shoring is one of our best all-round solutions for this and one of our best-sellers. The system can be used to shore grave excavations from top to bottom, by stacking on top of each other and securing the excavation walls. This system significantly reduces risk of grave collapse and ensures nobody needs to enter the excavation to install or retrieve the system. When ground conditions are more delicate in the winter and spring months, the more imperative there is to ensure nobody enters the excavation.
Sometimes our clients have very specific geographical conditions that require bespoke solutions and we work closely with them to design and develop a system which works to maximise their safety on-site. In 2020, Teleshore developed bespoke box shoring systems for customers including Newport City Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Hull City Council and others.
In Stoke, sandy ground conditions were proving a challenge. Our bespoke box shoring solution for them included the addition of sharp cutting edges to the bottom of the box system, which aided the excavation process in addition to providing shoring.
For Newport and Hull, our bespoke box shoring system enabled waterlogged conditions to be mitigated against in a system that doesn’t require being expanded widthways, meeting their exact size requirements for their sites.
3. Ensuring the safety of the general public and third parties
“There’s no other industry in the world that would excavate a large grave and then invite 30 members of the public to stand around it. Not only that, we’ll move 18 inches and dig another and all at a time when coffins and caskets are getting bigger and ground is at a premium.”
Graveside safety is one of the most important elements of risk assessments, as mourners who may have no awareness of the risks on-site arrive. Wintry weather brings with it the riskiest ground conditions for the general public as waterlogged ground turns into slippery mud or ice.
Teleshore has the largest selection of ground protection solutions for cemeteries available in the UK. From graveside preparation including soil containment, walkboards and artificial grass to the aforementioned ground reinforcement mat systems that we recommend. Appropriate combinations of these solutions can mitigate risks for all at the graveside.
