The trench box has many names, its also known as a trench shield, sewer box, tap box, or a manhole box. Chances are most of you have either used one or at some point have seen an excavator carrying one around site.
The trench box is known for keeping workers safe; I think just about everyone already figured that out, but what I want to talk about is some of its other benefits.
It basically cuts the shoring time in half as it eliminates the need for proper sloping, which in almost every case involves moving a whole lot of dirt to achieve. Simply straight wall the trench, then place it in. In addition, since you can stack them on top of each other, you can dig deep without cutting long slopes, which obviously eliminates digging an extra wide hole, and a very large spill pile.
My favorite benefit comes into play during longer projects. If properly installed, a trench box can improve the stability of the trench for up to SEVERAL months. There's nothing worse than coming back into work the next day, only to see what you thought was a perfect trench caved in. This has happened to the best of us, mostly due to unstable soil types and weather.