PERMANENT RULES
LABOR AND INDUSTRIES
Date of Adoption: July 12, 2000.
Purpose: WAC 296-155-526 Crane attached personnel platforms.
Topic: Crane attached personnel platforms.
Chapter 296-155 WAC, Safety standards for construction work, this rule will bring current requirements in national consensus codes, industry practices and other recognized standards into WAC. The rule does not establish additional compliance requirements beyond those contained in national consensus codes or other recognized standards. The incorporation of procedures and safeguards will reduce the potential for future injury or fatality. This rule will make it easier for employers and workers to find, understand, and comply with requirements relating to personnel platforms and the hoisting of personnel platforms attached to the boom of cranes.
The new WAC section is state initiated.
New section WAC 296-155-526 Crane attached personnel platforms.
| • | Requires that attached personnel platforms meet the design, inspection, construction, testing, maintenance and operation requirements prescribed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) national standard for Personnel Lifting Systems (B30.23-1998). |
| • | The rule provides specific information on the: |
| &lhlsqbul; | Scope, application and definition of terms, |
| &lhlsqbul; | General and specific crane requirements, |
| &lhlsqbul; | Instruments and components of cranes, |
| &lhlsqbul; | Design and specification criteria for personnel platforms, |
| &lhlsqbul; | Criteria for the loading of personnel platforms, |
| &lhlsqbul; | Prelift and trial lift meetings, inspections and proof testing, |
| &lhlsqbul; | Work practices, and |
| &lhlsqbul; | Communication. |
Statutory Authority for Adoption: RCW 49.17.010, [49.17.]040 and [49.17.]050.
Adopted under notice filed as WSR 00-06-056 on February 29, 2000.
Changes Other than Editing from Proposed to Adopted Version: WAC 296-155-526 Crane attached personnel platforms, grammatical changes were made in subsection (9)(d).
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Comply with Federal Statute: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Federal Rules or Standards: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Recently Enacted State Statutes: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted at Request of a Nongovernmental Entity: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted on the Agency's Own Initiative: New 1, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted in Order to Clarify, Streamline, or Reform Agency Procedures: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0.
Number of Sections Adopted Using Negotiated Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; Pilot Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0; or Other Alternative Rule Making: New 0, Amended 0, Repealed 0. Effective Date of Rule: October 1, 2000.
July 12, 2000
Gary Moore
Director
OTS-3458.3
NEW SECTION
WAC 296-155-526
Crane attached personnel platforms.
(1) Scope, application, and definitions.
(a) Scope and application. This standard applies to the design, construction, testing, use and maintenance of personnel platforms, and the hoisting of personnel platforms attached to the boom of cranes. Crane attached personnel platforms must meet the applicable requirements for design, inspection, construction, testing, maintenance, and operation as prescribed in the ASME B30.23-1998 safety code for Personnel Lifting Systems.
(b) Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:
"Failure" means load refusal, breakage, or separation of components.
"Lift" (or lifting) refers to all crane functions such as hoisting, lowering, swinging, booming in and out or up and down, or moving an attached personnel platform.
"Load refusal" means the point where the ultimate strength is exceeded.
"Runway" means a firm, level surface, designed, prepared, and designated as a path of travel for the weight and configuration of the crane being used to lift and travel with the attached crane platform. An existing surface may be used as long as it meets these criteria.
(2) General requirements. The use of a crane to hoist employees on a personnel platform is prohibited, except when the erection, use, and dismantling of conventional means of reaching the worksite, such as a personnel hoist, ladder, stairway, aerial lift, elevating work platform or scaffold, would be more hazardous, or is not possible because of structural design or worksite conditions.
(3) Cranes requirements.
(a) All lifting operations must be performed in accordance with the manufacturer's requirements.
(b) Hoist lines must be removed and stowed or an anti two-block device installed.
(c) Lifting of the personnel platform must be performed in a slow, controlled manner with no sudden movements of the crane or the platform.
(d) Load and boom hoist drum brakes, swing brakes, and locking devices, such as pawls or dogs, must be engaged when the personnel platform is occupied in a stationary working position.
(e) The crane must be uniformly level within one percent of level grade and located on firm footing. Cranes equipped with outriggers must follow manufacturer's requirements for use.
(f) The total weight of the loaded personnel platform must not exceed fifty percent of the rated capacity for the radius and configuration of the crane as required by load chart specifications.
(g) The use of machines having live booms (booms in which lowering is controlled by a brake without aid from other devices which slow the lowering speeds) is prohibited.
(4) Instruments and components.
(a) Cranes with variable angle booms must be equipped with a boom angle indicator, readily visible to the operator.
(b) Cranes with telescoping booms must be equipped with a device that at all times clearly indicates the boom's extended length to the operator. An accurate determination of the load radius, to be used during the lift, must be made before hoisting personnel.
(5) Personnel platforms - design criteria.
(a) A qualified engineer must design the personnel platform and attachment system.
(b) The attachment system must be designed to minimize tipping of the platform to no more than ten degrees from horizontal.
(c) The platform design must incorporate a motion control device that stabilizes the platform while being held in a working position.
(d) The personnel platform, excluding the guardrail system and body harness anchorages, must be capable of supporting, without failure, its own weight and at least five times the maximum intended load -- based on a minimum allowance of five hundred pounds for the first person with light tools, and an additional two hundred fifty pounds for each additional person.
(e) Criteria for guardrail systems contained in chapter 296-155 WAC, Part K and body harness anchorages are contained in chapter 296-155 WAC, Part C will be followed.
(f) A plate or other permanent marking which indicates the weight of the platform and its rated load capacity or maximum intended load, must be conspicuously posted on the personnel platform.
(6) Platform specifications.
(a) Each personnel platform must be equipped with a guardrail system which meets the requirements of chapter 296-155 WAC, Part K. The personnel platform must also be enclosed at least from the toeboard to mid-rail with either solid construction or expanded metal having openings no greater than one-half inch (1.27 cm).
(b) A grab rail must be installed inside the entire perimeter of the personnel platform.
(c) Access gates, if installed, must not swing outward during hoisting.
(d) Access gates, including sliding or folding gates, must be equipped with a restraining device to prevent accidental opening.
(e) Employees must have sufficient headroom to stand upright on the platform.
(f) All rough edges exposed to contact by employees must be surfaced or smoothed in order to prevent injury to employees from punctures or lacerations.
(g) A qualified welder familiar with the weld grades and types must perform all welding of the personnel platform and its components, with material specified in the platform design.
(7) Personnel platform loading.
(a) The personnel platform must not be loaded in excess of its rated load capacity.
(b) The number of employees on the personnel platform must not exceed the number required for the work to be performed.
(c) Personnel platforms must be used only for employees, tools, and materials necessary to do the work. Personnel platforms will not be used to hoist materials or tools without an employee on the platform (except to perform a trial lift or proof test as described in subsection (8) of this section).
(d) Materials and tools must be secured to prevent displacement.
(e) Materials and tools must be evenly distributed, within the confines of the platform, while work is being performed.
(f) Employees must keep their feet in contact with the floor of the platform at all times.
(8) Prelift meeting.
(a) A meeting attended by the crane operator, signal person(s) (if necessary for the lift), employee(s) to be lifted, and the person responsible for the task to be performed must be held to review the appropriate requirements of this section and the procedures to be followed.
(b) This meeting must be held before the trial lift at each new work location, and must be repeated for any employees newly assigned to the operation.
(9) Trial lift, inspection, and proof testing.
(a) A trial lift with an unoccupied personnel platform loaded at least to the anticipated lift weight must be made from ground level, or any other location where employees will enter the platform, to each location at which the personnel platform is to be hoisted and positioned. This trial lift must be performed immediately prior to allowing employees on the platform. The operator must determine that:
• All systems, controls, and safety devices are activated and functioning properly;
• No interferences exist; and
• All configurations necessary to reach work locations will allow the operator to remain under the fifty percent limit of the crane's rated capacity.
• Materials and tools to be used during the actual lift must be loaded in the platform, as provided in subsection (7) of this section, for the trial lift.
Note: A single trial lift may be performed for all locations that are to be reached from a single set-up position.
(b) The trial lift must be repeated:
• Prior to hoisting employees whenever the crane is moved and set up in a new location, or returned to a previously used location.
• A meeting attended by the crane operator, signal person(s) (if necessary for the lift), employee(s) to be lifted, and the person responsible for the task to be performed must be held to review the appropriate requirements of this section and the procedures to be followed.
(c) After the trial lift:
• But prior to hoisting personnel, the platform must be hoisted a few inches and inspected to ensure that it is secure and properly balanced.
• A visual inspection of the crane, personnel platform, and the crane base support or ground must be conducted by a competent person to determine whether the testing has exposed any defect or produced any adverse effect upon any component or structure.
(d) Deficiencies found during inspection, or operation, which create a safety hazard, must be corrected before hoisting personnel.
(e) The platform must be proof tested:
• At each job site;
• Prior to hoisting employees on the personnel platform; and
• After any repair or modification.
(i) For the proof test, one hundred twenty-five percent of the platform's rated capacity will be hoisted and held in a suspended position for five minutes. The proof test load must be evenly distributed on the platform.
(ii) After each proof test a competent person must inspect the platform and rigging.
(iii) Deficiencies found during proof testing must be corrected, and another proof test conducted. Employees must not be hoisted until a deficiency free proof test has been achieved.
Note: Proof testing may be done concurrently with the required trial lift.
(10) Work practices.
(a) Employees must keep all parts of the body inside the platform during raising, lowering, and positioning, except when performing the duties of a signal person.
(b) Before entering or exiting a personnel platform that is not landed, the platform must be secured to the structure where the work is to be performed, unless securing to the structure creates an unsafe situation.
(c) The crane operator must remain at the controls at all times when the platform is occupied.
(d) Employee lifting must be promptly discontinued upon indication of any dangerous weather conditions.
(e) Employees being lifted must remain in continuous sight of and in direct communication with the operator or signal person. Any disruption in communications will cause operations to be immediately discontinued. Signals to the operator will be in accordance with section 5-3.3, ASME B30.5 1994 and this section.
(f) In situations where direct visual contact with the operator is not possible, or the use of a signal person may be hazardous for that person, direct communication alone, such as by radio, may be used. If a secure radio frequency is not available, hard-wired voice communication will be used. When using voice commands, there will be a continuous pause between commands of one-second duration per ten feet to the desired lift height or any contact point.
(g) The following voice commands are recommended for use:
&lhlsqbul; Boom up.
&lhlsqbul; Boom down.
&lhlsqbul; Swing left.
&lhlsqbul; Swing Right.
&lhlsqbul; Extend out.
&lhlsqbul; Retract in.
&lhlsqbul; Stop.
Note: If special voice commands are required to perform the lift safely, they must be mutually agreed upon between the designated signal person and the crane operator before the lift procedure starts.
(h) Employees on a personnel platform must use a full body harness system with lanyard appropriately attached to a structural member within the personnel platform capable of supporting a fall impact for employees using the anchorage as specified in chapter 296-155 WAC, Part C.
(i) Lifts must not be made on the crane's load lines while personnel are working from an attached platform.
(11) Traveling.
(a) Lifting of employees while the crane is traveling is prohibited, except for portal, tower and locomotive cranes, or where the employer demonstrates that there is no less hazardous way to perform the work.
(b) Under any circumstances where a crane would travel while lifting personnel, the employer must implement the following procedures to safeguard employees:
(i) Crane travel must be restricted to a fixed track or runway;
(ii) Travel must be limited to the load radius of the boom used during the lift; and
(iii) The boom must be parallel to the direction of travel.
(c) A complete trial run must be performed before employees are allowed to occupy the platform.
Note: This trial run can be performed concurrent with the trial lift required by subsection (8) of this section.
(d) If travel is done with a rubber tired-carrier, the condition and air pressure of the tires must be checked. The chart capacity for lifts on rubber must be used for application of the fifty percent reduction of rated capacity. Notwithstanding the requirements of subsection (3) of this section, outriggers may be partially retracted as necessary for travel.
(12) Communication. When using verbal signals, clarity and precision are essential for safe operation. Operators must be able to communicate with others at the worksite sufficiently to understand the signs, notices, operation instructions, and the signal code to be used.
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