Texas Contractor’s Trench-Safety Citation Upheld by OSHRC Judge

A Texas-based contractor didn’t adequately protect workers at a site where a trench was constructed for an infrastructure project, exposing them to a cave-in hazard, a federal administrative law judge ruled.

DeNucci Constructors Inc. had appealed a citation the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued after an agency compliance assistance specialist happened to pass by the job site in Austin, Texas, in July 2018 and then examined the trench. The company had been hired to locate old wastewater pipes for the city of Austin.

“DeNucci neither had nor enforced any trench safety rules pertaining to the Worksite,” Judge Patrick Augustine ...