1

Determine if Excavation or Penetration Permit is desired or required.
Excavation or Penetration Permits may be requested for any work location when a Member of the Workforce determines that an Excavation or Penetration Permit is warranted.

Excavation Permit is required for:

• Excavation operations that include: digging, saw-cutting, drilling, coring, or trenching into soil, sidewalks, or asphalt beyond a depth greater than 12 inches.
• Excavation of soil beneath concrete sidewalks, slabs or asphalt greater than two inches.
• Excavation of soil beneath interior slabs.
• Scraping or blading of any area to a depth greater than 12 inches.
• Scraping or blading of any area undisturbed or appearing to be undisturbed, (e.g., covered by native vegetation), and blading or improvements to previously unimproved roads or paths.

Penetration Permit is required for:

• Penetration of poured concrete slabs, floors, walls, ceilings (including filled cinderblock walls) beyond a depth greater than two inches.
• Penetrations where site investigation cannot identify possible hidden hazards.
• Penetrations (e.g., chipping, grinding, jack-hammering) into any underground concrete duct bank. Exception: Excess concrete “sluff” poured around duct banks or manholes will not require this permit. When a duct bank Penetration Permit identifies high voltage hazards, the Permit Requestor must submit a task-specific procedure to the Penetration Coordinator for review.

EXCEPTION: Irrigation sprinkler head repairs will be permitted without Excavation or Penetration Permits or spotting, provided that: a) the area of the damaged irrigation sprinkler head is hand dug (NO POWER TOOLS), b) the hole is no deeper than 24”, and c) the damaged irrigation sprinkler head is not located in an Environmental Restoration Site (based on information from Site Environmental Reviewer).

2

Request a Permit

• Submits Excavation or Penetration Permit requests no more than 14 days and no less than six days before excavation or penetration operations are scheduled.
• Completes the requestor section of the permit, and submits to the Site Environmental Reviewer. Note: Permit Requestor must provide an accurate description and drawings of the proposed excavation or penetration site, including any staging areas and access to sites in remote areas, expected start date, duration of activity or end date, and service order number for spotter charges. Permit Requestor will evaluate excavation or penetration activities to determine if a utility outage is appropriate. If appropriate, the Permit Requestor requests a utility outage.
• Ensures that the proposed excavation or penetration site has been marked (e.g. white paint on soil) a maximum of six days before scheduled spotting.

3

Perform Environmental Restoration Site Review

• Receives the Excavation or Penetration Permit request, and assigns a tracking number.
• Identifies if excavation or penetration operations are in an environmentally-sensitive or RAD area. When operations are in an environmentally-sensitive or RAD area, the Site Environmental Reviewer will notify the Permit Requestor that ES&H documentation is necessary.
• Completes the Environmental Review section of the Excavation or Penetration Permit and forwards to the Utility Coordinator.

4

Perform Excavation or Penetration Permit Review

• Follows the site-specific internal excavation or penetration permit review procedure to locate utilities and other hazards near proposed excavation or penetration site. 

5

Issue Excavation or Penetration Permit

• Notifies the Excavation or Penetration Coordinator that the Excavation or Penetration Permit package is ready.

6

Verify Spotters Marks

• Picks up Excavation or Penetration Permit package from the Utility Coordinator, and reviews the Excavation or Penetration Permit package to ensure the permit is complete.
• Coordinates with the Supervisor Authorizing the Excavation or Penetration and the Excavator or Penetrator to ensure that identified utilities at the excavation or penetration site have been marked, and a determination is made for the excavation or penetration operation to proceed.

7

Perform Excavation or Penetration Operations

• Supervisor Authorizing the Excavation or Penetration, and the Excavator or Penetrator perform site investigation prior to performing excavation or penetration activities to ensure that work is performed in a safe manner.
• Reviews and follows all guidance included on the Excavation or Penetration Permit, and ensures that all required attachments or drawings are included.
• Supervisor Authorizing the Excavation or Penetration and the Excavation or Penetration Coordinator reviews all health and safety concerns (e.g., asbestos hazard, type of PPE required, etc.) with the Excavator or Penetrator before excavation or penetration operations may proceed This is the pre-job briefing.
• Verifies that all Utility Spotter marks (e.g., flags, spray paint or tape) are visible. Excavator or Penetrator is responsible for maintaining spotter’s marks after permit is issued.
• Ensures that the Excavation or Penetration Permit and attachments are at the excavation or penetration site during excavation or penetration operations.
• Performs excavation or penetration with CAUTION using all required personal protective equipment (PPE). Current detection equipment technology cannot guarantee that all hazards have been identified.

Ensure that the following actions are performed:

• Conduct a site investigation.
• Coordinate activities with the ES&H Customer Support Team.
• Review drawings of the site where excavation or penetration activities are to take place:
  • Look for concealed utilities.
  • Determine the environmental, archeological, and forest service impacts of the excavation. Note: Utility spotting services and drawing reviews must be obtained through the Facilities Management and Operations Center; call Telecon at 844-4571. The spotting and drawing review may be waived by the manager responsible for the excavation when site conditions are known and no chance of encountering utilities or other impacts exists.
• Assess the need for and obtain an excavation or penetration permit when required. Excavation or penetration permits are required for:
  • All excavations over 12 inches in depth or any excavation beneath concrete or asphalt.
  • Excavations into subsurface soil in buildings beneath slabs.
  • Scraping, blading, or excavating for improvements to roads or paths, or for any area previously undisturbed or that appears to be undisturbed (i.e., areas covered with native vegetation).
  • Penetration activities into concrete slabs, floors, ceilings, roofs, or walls greater than two inches.
  • Excavation of soil beneath concrete sidewalks, slabs or asphalt greater than two inches.
  • All penetrations into underground concrete duct banks.
  • All penetrations in which a site investigation can not identify possible hidden hazards.
  • At SNL/CA, a Sandia/California facility safety permit is required.
• Ensure that hazards are identified and communicated to workers through a pre-job briefing and using the appropriate Sandia excavation or penetration permit.
• Designate a competent person for excavation activities. Note: For the purposes of this document, a competent person is defined as one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous or dangerous to Members of the Workforce, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them.
• Ensure that:
  • Adequate oversight of Members of the Workforce and their activities is provided to ensure all coring and sawing activities are performed in accordance with ES&H requirements.
  • Excavation or penetration activity oversight is clearly identified and performed by a competent person.
  • Personnel who operate excavation equipment are properly trained or certified.
  • Personnel who perform penetration or excavation activities are advised of the location of electric power circuit lines, the hazards involved, and the protective measures to be taken. Note: See ESH100.2.IS.10, Manage Industrial Machine and Portable Power Tool Safety, and ESH100.2.IS.8, Assess Workplace Hazards and Provide and Maintain Personal Protective Equipment, for additional information on PPE requirements.
  • Incidents or events associated with excavation or penetration activities are reported to the ES&H Assurance, Strategic Planning, ISM, and BBS Departments in accordance with ESH100.4.RPT.3, Report Occurrences.

• Follow all requirements on the excavation or penetration permit.
• Update any drawings with new information discovered during the excavation or penetration and return them to the Facilities Management and Operations Center.
• Use barricades and signage to control the work area and to protect Members of the Workforce from entering a trenching or excavation site at all times (including non-standard hours, as long as the hazards exist). Note: Obey all barricades, flagging, warning lights, and signs associated with excavations, trenches, or floor or wall penetrations. See ESH100.2.IS.9, Apply Signs and Tags, for additional details about signage requirements.
• Follow any indicated detours (see the Safety Engineering Program’s Traffic Safety Website for lab-wide traffic conditions).
• Do not dispose of anything in an excavation, trench, or floor or wall penetration.

• Firestop and smokestop all penetrations through fire barriers.
  Note: Fire stopping and smokestopping activities must be done in accordance with the Construction Standard Specification, Section 07270, Firestopping, the International Building Code, Chapter 7, “Fire-Resistance-Rated Construction,” Section 712, “Penetrations,” and Section 713, “Fire-Resistant Joint Systems.”