It’s not about digging a hole — it’s about protecting everything the hole touches, from the workers inside it to the structures next to it.
Every excavation creates a problem the moment the first scoop of soil comes out: the ground that used to hold itself up now needs help. That’s the entire purpose of Support of Excavation (SOE) — sometimes called shoring. It’s the design of vertical and lateral support systems that keep an open excavation stable, sized to the actual risk a project carries, both now and later in its life.
Where SOE fits in the timeline
SOE work happens right before a deep excavation begins, and often continues in stages alongside it — partly to stay compliant with OSHA, partly to manage groundwater as the cut gets deeper. It’s not a separate phase tacked onto the schedule; it’s load-bearing infrastructure for the construction process itself.
There’s no “best” system — only the right one for the site
The right shoring system comes down to the project: the soil, whether the excavation is temporary or permanent, and whether materials can be pulled back out and reused. Reusable, removable systems are usually preferred, but sometimes shoring must stay in the ground permanently — either by design, or because removing it after backfill isn’t feasible.
Site conditions drive this decision too. The space around an excavation often determines whether it can be benched — cut back in steps — or needs full vertical support instead. Tight sites combined with low shear-strength soils call for a more robust shoring design, since there’s less room for error and less soil strength to lean on.
What’s actually at stake
Get SOE wrong, and the risk isn’t inconvenience — it’s collapse, injury, or worse to anyone working inside an active excavation. That’s why proper design and safety factors aren’t a formality; they’re the whole point.
Groundwater adds another layer. It changes the lateral load a system has to resist, which can reshape the final design. Just as important, it determines whether a dewatering plan needs to run alongside the shoring plan — because a shoring system and a wet excavation don’t mix well on their own.
Protecting what’s next door
SOE isn’t just about the hole — it’s about everything around it. A well-designed system prevents settlement in adjacent structures that sit at a higher elevation than the new excavation, especially where there’s surcharge loading from a building pressing down nearby. In some cases, that means underpinning an adjacent structure so even minor soil movement during shoring doesn’t translate into building settlement.
Permitting is part of the plan, not an afterthought
When a project requires a permit and a delegated shoring design, that design needs to be reviewed, approved, and possibly stamped by the engineer of record before permitting can move forward. We build this step into our process from the start, so it supports your timeline instead of becoming a bottleneck near the finish line.
Shoring is risk mitigation, not overdesign
It’s natural to look at a line item for shoring and wonder if it’s more than the project needs. In practice, every part of an SOE design is sized to a specific risk — the ones visible today, and the ones that could show up later if the ground shifts. Our job is to make sure you’re designing for the protection the site calls for.
We’re built to move fast when you need us to
Sometimes a shoring system needs surfaces later than anyone planned — maybe a GC is a week out from excavation and realizes they need support of excavation they hadn’t budgeted for. We can move quickly: a preliminary design, a bid to anchor the contract, materials ordered fast enough to mobilize. We’re glad to be that resource when timing gets tight.
But early is always better!
The smoothest projects are the ones where we’re looped in before the bid — with a geotechnical report in hand, so the risks and the budget for addressing them are clear from day one. If there’s excavation anywhere in your project’s future, bring us in early, and we’ll help you plan for it right from the start.