OSHA’s New Steel Erection Standard

 

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Accidents during steel erection continue to cause injuries and fatalities at construction sites. Based on a review of compliance problems and public comments, OSHA determined that the old steel erection rule, which has been in place with little change for 30 years, needed a complete revision to provide greater protection and eliminate ambiguity and confusion. OSHA believed that reorganizing the standard's requirements into a more logical sequence would help employers to understand better how to protect employees from the hazards associated with steel erection and will thus reduce the incidence of injuries and fatalities in this workforce.

The final rule sets performance-oriented criteria, where possible, to protect employees from steel erection related hazards such as working under loads; hoisting, landing and placing decking; column stability; double connections; hoisting, landing and placing steel joists; and falls to lower levels.

To aid this effort, the final rule contains requirements for hoisting and rigging, structural steel assembly, beam and column connections, joist erection, systems–engineered metal building erection, fall protection and training.

Key provisions of the revised steel erection standard

Examples of structures where steel erection may occur include but are not limited to the following: Single and multi-story buildings; systems-engineered metal buildings; lift slab/tilt-up structures; energy exploration structures; energy production, transfer and storage structures and facilities; auditoriums; malls; amphitheaters; stadiums; power plants; mills; chemical process structures; bridges; trestles; overpasses; underpasses; viaducts; aqueducts; aerospace facilities and structures; radar and communication structures; light towers; signage; billboards; scoreboards; conveyor systems; conveyor  supports and related framing; stairways; stair towers; fire escapes; draft curtains; fire containment structures; monorails; aerial ways; catwalks; curtain walls; window walls; store fronts; elevator fronts; entrances; skylights; metal roofs; industrial structures; hi-bay structures; rail, marine and other transportation structures; sound barriers; water process and water containment structures; air and cable supported structures; space frames; geodesic domes; canopies; racks and rack support structures and frames; platforms; walkways; balconies; atriums; penthouses; car dumpers; stackers/reclaimers; cranes and craneways; bins; hoppers; ovens; furnaces; stacks; amusement park structures and rides; and artistic and monumental structures.

Steel Erection Activities

Steel erection activities include: hoisting, laying out, placing, connecting, welding, burning, guying, bracing, bolting, plumbing and rigging structural steel, steel joists and metal buildings; installing metal decking, curtain walls, window walls, siding systems, miscellaneous metals, ornamental iron and similar materials; and moving point–to–point while performing these activities.

Site Layout and Construction Sequence

·            Requires certification of proper curing of concrete in footings, piers, etc. for steel columns.

·            Requires controlling contractor to provide erector with a safe site layout including preplanning routes for hoisting loads.

·            Preplanning of overhead hoisting operations.

Site-Specific Erection Plan

·               Requires preplanning of key erection elements, including coordination with controlling contractor before erection begins, in certain circumstances.

Hoisting and Rigging

·               Provides additional crane safety for steel erection.

·               Minimizes employee exposure to overhead loads through preplanning and work practice requirements.

·               Prescribes proper procedure for multiple lifts (Christmas-treeing).

Structural Steel Assembly

·               Provides safer walking/working surfaces by eliminating tripping hazards and minimizes slips through new slip resistance requirements.

·               Provides specific work practices regarding safely landing deck bundles and promoting the prompt protection from fall hazards in interior openings.

Column Anchorage

·               Requires 4 anchor bolts per column along with other column stability requirements.

·               Requires procedures for adequacy of anchor bolts that have been modified in the field.

Beams and Columns

·               Eliminates extremely dangerous collapse hazards associated with making double connections at columns.

·               During the final placing of solid web structural members, the load must not be released from the hoisting line until the members are secured with at least two bolts per connection.

Open Web Steel Joists

·               Requirements minimizing collapse of lightweight steel joists by addressing need for erection bridging and method of attachment.

·               Requirements for bridging terminus anchors with illustrations and drawings in a nonmandatory appendix.

·               New requirements to minimize collapse in placing loads on steel joists.

·               Hoisting cables must not be released until the seat at each end of the steel joist is field–bolted.

Systems-Engineered Metal Buildings

·               Requirements to minimize collapse in the erection of these specialized structures which account for a major portion of steel erection in this country.

·               Rigid frames shall have 50 percent of their bolts or the number of bolts specified by the manufacturer (whichever is greater) installed and tightened on both sides of the web adjacent to each flange before the hoisting equipment is released.

Falling Object Protection

·               Performance provisions that address hazards of falling objects in steel erection.

Fall Protection

·               Controlled decking zone (CDZ) provisions to prevent decking fatalities.

·               Deckers in a CDZ and connectors must be protected at heights greater than two stories or 30 feet. Connectors between 15 and 30 feet must wear fall arrest or restraint equipment and be able to be tied off or be provided another means of fall protection.

·               Requires fall protection for all others engaged in steel erection at heights greater than 15 feet.

Training

Requires qualified person to train exposed workers in fall protection.

Requires qualified person to train exposed workers engaged in special, high risk activities including those involved in multiple–lift rigging procedures, connector procedures, and those working in controlled decking zones.

OSHA estimates that, of the 35 annual steel erection fatalities, 8 fatalities will be averted by full compliance with the existing standard and that an additional 22 fatalities will be averted by compliance with the final standard. Additionally, of the 2,279 lost-workday steel erection injuries occurring annually, OSHA estimates that 1,142 injuries will be averted by full compliance with the existing and final standards (303 injuries will be averted by full compliance with the existing standard and 838 injuries will be averted by full compliance with the final standard; figures do not add to the total due to rounding.

 This information is provided by Assurance Agency https:www.assuranceagency.com

Carcinogens

 

Carcinogens are hazardous substances at your jobsite that can cause cancer. This handout points out the Hazard Communication (HazCom) Standard’s requirements for handling carcinogens. All requirements of the HazCom standard must be followed when dealing with chemicals considered to be carcinogenic.

As with all hazardous substances, carcinogen exposure should be controlled primarily using engineering and process controls such as ventilating a workspace. Personal protective equip­ment should only be used after other measures fail or are not feasible.

How OSHA determines a carcinogen

OSHA’s HazCom Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, defines a carcinogen as a chemical that:

·         Has been evaluated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and found to be a carcinogen or potential carcinogen.

·         Is listed as a carcinogen or potential carcinogen in the Annual Report on Carcinogens published by the National Toxicology Program (NTP).

·         Is regulated by OSHA as a carcinogen.

Safety data sheets

Only chemical manufacturers and importers are required to perform hazard determinations on chemicals. Any chemical your company receives that is regulated by OSHA as a carcino­gen, or is on one of the previously mentioned lists, must be labeled as such, and an entry must be made on the Safety Data Sheet (SDS).

Labels and other forms of warning

Labels provide an immediate warning of the hazards to which you may be exposed. Chemi­cals “known to be carcinogenic” and those that may “reasonably be anticipated to be carcino­genic” by NTP must have warnings on the label and information on the SDS. All IARC listed chemicals in Groups 1 (carcinogenic to humans), and 2A (probably carcinogenic to humans), must include appropriate entries on both the SDS and label. Group 2B chemi­cals (possibly carcinogenic to humans) need be noted only on the SDS.

Employee training

You must have additional training when a new physical or health hazard is introduced at your worksite. If the newly introduced hazard is a suspect carcinogen, and there has never been a carcinogenic hazard in the workplace before, then new training for carcinogenic haz­ards must be conducted for you in those work areas where you will be exposed.

This information is provided by Assurance Agency https:www.assuranceagency.com

Hazards with Suspended Loads - by: Berglund Construction

 

Multiple times a year I’m sent a serious injury or fatality report associated with suspended loads. You should never consider working, walking, standing or traversing under a suspended load. Suspended loads pose great dangers to all involved in that work task and all of those who are not associated with that task.

Let’s consider some scopes of suspended loads:

• Crane picks

• Lull and forklift operations

• Beta hoist material handling

• Chain fall material handling

• Well wheel material handling

• Boom lift material setting

• Scissor lift material handling

• Ladder material handling

• Suspended Swing stage work
 
• Backhoe’s placing shields in deep excavations


What could possibly go wrong?

• Communication breakdown amongst the tradesmen

• Tradesmen/people traversing under our loads

• Rigging failures

• Equipment failures

• Over Loading the capacity of such equipment’s

• Human error while guiding a load

What can we do to prevent these struck by/crushed by accidents?

• Better pre-planning

• Better jobsite communications in orientations

• Inspections of all rigging

• Knowing the capacity ratings of such equipment’s

• Only certified/trained operators on mentioned equipment’s

• Constant inspections of equipment and rigging prior to each use

• Keep 20 ft away from overhead powerlines

• Demark a controlled access zone with directional and warning signage at ground level

• Provide a spotter or flagger while lifting or swinging load

• Provide public canopies at access routes

• Wear high visibility PPE

• Discuss upcoming suspended work at weekly foreman meetings

• Only one person at a time communicates with crane operations

• Place bobcat buckets and lull forks on the ground when not in use

There is plenty of information here to benefit from regarding suspended loads. Take a look at your projects today and discuss who may be performing suspended load applications. Address their task according to what we have discussed within this document.

Pipeline Construction

 

If you work on a pipeline, you and your company must obey the OSHA safety and health regulations. OSHA recently visited a number of pipeline installation jobsites in a northern state. This Toolbox Talk discusses the results of those OSHA visits.

The contractor received willful and serious violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The citations were for: (1) inadequately guarded trenches, (2) improper operation and maintenance of pipelaying cranes, and (3) allowing unauthorized employees to ride machinery.

All of these activities are prohibited by the OSHA regulations.

Cave-in-protection

The common hazard found at most of the worksites was the lack of adequate cave-in protection for employees working in trenches five feet or more in depth.

Twenty-five American workers died in trenching-related cave-ins in 1998.

OSHA standards require that effective collapse protection be in place and in use before you enter a trench. The absence of such protection leaves workers exposed to being struck by and buried beneath tons of soil before they have a chance to react or escape.

Other trenching and shoring violations that were observed were: (1) water accumulating in a trench, (2) a trench lacked a ladder or other means of exit every 25 feet, and (3) removed dirt piles were placed too close to the edge of excavations.

Unauthorized modifications to heavy equipment

The boom of a pipelaying crane that was pulling the equipment sled fell, struck, and killed an employee riding on the sled. OSHA cited the company for making un authorized modifications to the pipelayer and allowing employees to ride the sled.

Other equipment problems that were cited were: (1) a custom-made lifting device had not been load-tested or had its load lifting capacity marked on the device, (2) damaged crane slings were in use, and (3) a sling was not marked with its load rating.

Jobsites are complicated and busy. It takes alert supervisors and employees, ones that know the OSHA regulations, can spot hazards, and are willing to correct those hazards, to make jobsites safe.

This information is provided by Assurance Agency https:www.assuranceagency.com