Walking and Working Surfaces
Safe Work Practices
- Ensure walking-working surfaces are kept in a clean, orderly, and sanitary condition.
- Walking-working surfaces are to be maintained free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, loose boards, corrosion, leaks, spills, snow, and ice.
- Each walking-working surface should be able to support the maximum intended load for that surface.
- Each surface should provide a safe means of access and egress to and from each walking-working surface.
- Walking-working surfaces are to be inspected regularly and maintained in a safe condition.
Safe Work Practices
- Each manhole step and step bolt should be capable of supporting its maximum intended load.
- Each manhole step and step bolt should be regularly maintained and inspected.
Safe Work Practices
- Handrails should be used when employees are going up and down the stairs.
- All stairways need to be maintained in clean, dry and good condition.
- Running up and down the stairs should not be permitted.
- When on stairs, employees should not be distracted by phones, or other electronic devices.
Safe Work Practices
- Ladders are to be used only for the purposes for which they were designed.
- Ladders should be Inspected before initial use in each work shift, and more frequently as necessary, to identify any visible defects that could cause employee injury.
- Any ladder with structural or other defects should be removed from service and immediately tagged "Dangerous: Do Not Use" or with similar language until repair has been made.
- Employees should face the ladder as they move up or down with at least one hand grasping the ladder.
- Ladders are not to be loaded beyond the maximum intended load.
- Ladders are to be used only on stable and level surfaces unless they are secured or stabilized to prevent accidental displacement.
- No ladder should be moved, shifted, or extended while an employee is on it.
- Ladders that are placed in locations such as passageways, doorways, or driveways where they can be displaced by other activities or traffic should be guarded or otherwise protected.
- When on ladders, employees should be alert to their surroundings and not distracted by electronic devices.
- Always maintain three points of contact when ascending and descending a ladder.
Safe Work Practices
- Each employee who uses a dockboard should be trained to properly place and secure it to prevent unintentional movement.
- Ensure dockboards are capable of supporting the maximum intended load.
- Portable dockboards should be secured by anchoring them in place or using equipment or devices that prevent the dockboard from moving out of a safe position.
- Measures, such as wheel chocks or sand shoes, are to be used to prevent the transport vehicle (e.g. a truck, semi-trailer, trailer, or rail car) on which a dockboard is placed, from moving while employees are on the dockboard.
- Portable dockboards are to be equipped with handholds or other means to permit safe handling of dockboards.
Safe Work Practices
- Fall protection should be provided to each employee exposed to fall hazards.
- Fall protection equipment needs to be inspected before each use and maintained as needed.
- Before any employee is exposed to a fall hazard, they must be provided training on personal fall protection systems.
- Lifelines, safety belts, and lanyards are to be used only for employee safeguarding.
- Training should be provided by a qualified person.
- Nature of the fall hazards in the work area and how to recognize them.
- Procedures to be followed to minimize those hazards.
- Correct procedures for installing, inspecting, operating, maintaining, and disassembling the personal fall protection systems that the employee uses.
- Correct use of personal fall protection systems and equipment including, but not limited to, proper hook-up, anchoring, and tie-off techniques, and methods of equipment inspection and storage, as specified by the manufacturer.
- Information and training needs to be provided to each employee in a manner that the employee understands.
- Training should be provided initially and refresher training provided when it is obsolete, inadequacies in employee's knowledge, or after changes in the equipment being used.
- Safety nets are to be provided when workplaces are more than 25 feet above the ground or water surface, or other surfaces where the use of ladders, scaffolds, catch platforms, temporary floors, safety lines, or safety belts is impractical.
- Employees working over or near water, where the danger of drowning exists, are to be provided with U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket or buoyant work vests.
Safe Work Practices
- Each employee who performs work while on a scaffold is to be trained by a person qualified in the subject matter to recognize the hazards associated with the type of scaffold being used and to understand the procedures to control or minimize those hazards.
- Each scaffold and scaffold component shall be capable of supporting, without failure, its own weight and at least 4 times the maximum intended load applied or transmitted to it.
- Each suspension rope, including connecting hardware, used on non-adjustable suspension scaffolds shall be capable of supporting, without failure, at least 6 times the maximum intended load applied or transmitted to that rope.
- The stall load of any scaffold hoist shall not exceed 3 times its rated load.
- Scaffolds shall be designed by a qualified person and shall be constructed and loaded in accordance with that design.
- Each platform on all working levels of scaffolds shall be fully planked or decked between the front uprights and the guardrail supports.
- Each platform unit (e.g., scaffold plank, fabricated plank, fabricated deck, or fabricated platform) shall be installed so that the space between adjacent units and the space between the platform and the uprights is no more than 1 inch wide.
Safe Work Practices
- Before any rope descent system is used, ensure each anchorage has been identified, tested, certified, and maintained each anchorage so it is capable of supporting at least 5,000 pounds, in any direction, for each employee attached.
- Ensure rope descent systems are inspected annually by a qualified person.
- No rope descent system should be used for heights greater than 300 feet above grade unless the employer demonstrates that it is not feasible to access such heights by any other means or that those means pose a greater hazard than using a rope descent system.
- The rope descent system must be used in accordance with instructions, warnings, and design limitations set by the manufacturer or under the direction of a qualified person.
- Each employee who uses the rope descent system must be trained.
- Each rope descent system is to be inspected at the start of each workshift that it is to be used.
- All damaged or defective equipment is to be removed from service immediately and replaced.
- Ensure prompt rescue of each employee is provided in the event of a fall.
