A stairway, ladder, ramp or other safe means of egress must be located in trench excavations that are 4 feet (1.22 m) or more in depth so as to require no more than 25 feet (7.62 m) of lateral travel for employees. Designed to prevent slipping.
Pitching wedges have a loft of between 46 and 48 degrees. Approach wedges have lofts between 50 and 52 degrees. The extra loft on the approach wedge helps it to get up in the air, but decreases the distance hit.
Wedge Failure â Direction of Sliding Scenario #1:If the dip directions of the two planes lie outside the included angle between i (trend of the line of intersection) and f (dip direction of face), the wedge will slide on both planes. Example scenario #2:If the dip directions of one plane (e.g. Plane A) lies within the included angle