The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published a revised compliance directive for communication tower construction that removes the restriction on raising employees on the hoist line to workstations below 200 feet. All other policies and procedures of the directive remain unchanged.
"This change allows tower workers to be lifted on the hoist line to work stations, regardless of the elevation and maintains appropriate safety measures for safe access to communications towers during construction," said OSHA Administrator John Henshaw.
The revised compliance directive, "Interim Inspection Procedures During Communication Tower Construction Activities," applies only to the construction of new communications towers. Activities such as maintenance, retrofitting and dismantling will be addressed in a future directive.
The change applies only to federal programs and does not require state adoption. However, states have up to 60 days to provide notification of whether they intend to adopt the new guidelines.
The compliance directive is available on the OSHA web site at www.osha.gov.
edited by Sandy Smith ([email protected])