March 23, 2006

HOUSTON, TX—National Trench Safety, LLC (NTS), a Houston-based company specializing in the rental and sales of trench and traffic safety equipment, as well as OSHA-compliant training classes, announced today that it has purchased certain operating assets and hired certain employees of On-Grade Systems, Inc., a Houston based laser, survey instrument and machine control products sales and repair company.

“We are very excited about our new laser repair operation,” said Ron Chilton, president of NTS. “The assets and employees we gained in this transaction allow NTS to open a large and fully staffed laser repair division in our Houston branch operation. On-Grade has a large nationwide customer base that will allow NTS to expand its business reach to new areas of the country. In addition, NTS will now be able to offer very sophisticated laser, machine control and survey instrument repair capabilities to all of our customers in each of our branch locations.”

The new laser division will be managed by Steve Wratchford, who is the past President of On-Grade. Steve Wratchford has more than 15 years direct experience in the sale and repairs of laser, survey instruments and machine control products.

“We are very excited to have closed this transaction and believe this is a major step in our goal to provide our customers the ultimate one stop service partner they are looking for,” said Chilton. “We believe that by acquiring the assets and employees of On-Grade we have gained a tremendous amount of very specific laser product and industry expertise that will truly be an asset to National Trench Safety.”

In maintaining the objective of building a nationwide network of trench and traffic safety branches, NTS plans to open two to three other new branch operations in the second half of 2006 with additional branches to follow. Chilton declined to comment on the location of the additional new branches. For more information about NTS, visit the National Trench Safety website at ntsafety.wpengine.com.