What is shoringin construction?

Shoring supports the excavation walls and resists ground movement; hydraulic shores, sheet piles, and soldier pile and lagging are shoring. Shielding protects the workers inside it without supporting the cut; a trench box is a shield. Both satisfy OSHA's protective system requirement, but they are not interchangeable: next to a structure or roadway where ground movement itself is the problem, you shore, because a shield would let the ground settle around it.

At 5 ft of depth and beyond, every trench needs a protective system, shoring, shielding, or sloping and benching, unless the excavation is made entirely in stable rock. A competent person must classify the soil and inspect the excavation. Protective systems for trenches deeper than 20 ft must be designed by a registered professional engineer, and trenches 4 ft and deeper also need a ladder or other means of egress within 25 ft of lateral travel.

It is almost always a means and methods item, so the contractor owns it. Simple hydraulic shores get selected from manufacturer tabulated data by the field; engineered systems like soldier piles or sheet piles are delegated design, stamped by an engineer hired through the shoring subcontractor. The cost sits in the sitework or utility bid, and on lump sum work it is invisible to the owner, which is exactly why estimators forget to carry it.