Six Foot Under...

... or rather not. This story highlights a rather disturbing development in burials... to save money... here.


Many moons ago I worked for a local authority where, due to lack of land and a high water table, there were problems finding locations to bury people. The associated costs and lack of space led to someone coming up with the idea of burying people upright; that is until it was realised that there were many reasons why this was not such a good idea. From a cost saving perspective it is was deemed a possible saving to use a single machine (and therefore only one worker due to health and safety requirements for two or more when digging a 'standard' grave) with a boring screw (Archimedes type) to drill the hole. However, there were particular religious objections to this and I left before any decision on this was made.

The regulations in relation to grave plots are varied according to country, country, and location specific rules. A standard grave can take three or more bodies over a 100 year period. One buried at 8 feet, wait 30 years (or less if a relative is buried in the same plot), one buried at 5 feet, wait 35 years, and another above that with a capping (sealing) stone. The 'standard' depth of a grave is six feet although this itself is open to interpretation and is often dependent upon local conditions. Where there are high water tables (e.g. New Orleans) then the best choice (in hindsight for N/O this was not so good with caskets found many miles away from their original burial point) is to have an above ground tomb.