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Construction

Electric power generation, distribution, and transmission hazards are addressed in specific standards for the construction industry.

OSHA Standards

This section highlights OSHA standards, the Regulatory Agenda (a list of actions being taken with regard to OSHA standards), and directives (instructions for compliance officers) and standard interpretations (official letters of interpretation of the standards) related to power transmission and distribution in the construction industry.

Note: Twenty-five states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have OSHA-approved State Plans and have adopted their own standards and enforcement policies. For the most part, these States adopt standards that are identical to Federal OSHA. However, some States have adopted different standards applicable to this topic or may have different enforcement policies.

Frequently Cited Standards

The following standards, in order, were the most frequently cited by Federal OSHA from October 2010 through September 2011, in Heavy Construction, Except Highway and Street Industry Group (SIC code 162).

• 1926.651, Specific excavation requirements [related topic page]
  


• 1926.652, Requirements for protective systems
  


• 1926.21, Safety training and education [related topic page]
  


• 1926.1053, Ladders
  


• 1926.100, Head protection [related topic page]
  


• 1904.29, Forms [related topic page]
  


• 1926.501, Duty to have fall protection [related topic page]
  


• 1926.251, Rigging equipment for material handling
  


• 1926.106, Working over or near water
  


• 1910.1200, Hazard communication [related topic page]

Other Highlighted Standards

Construction Industry (29 CFR 1926)

• 1926 Subpart V, Power transmission and distribution
• 1926.950, General requirements
• 1926.951, Tools and protective equipment
• 1926.952, Mechanical equipment
• 1926.953, Material handling
• 1926.954, Grounding for protection of employees
• 1926.955, Overhead lines
• 1926.956, Underground lines
• 1926.957, Construction in energized substations
• 1926.958, External load helicopters
• 1926.959, Lineman's body belts, safety straps, and lanyards
• 1926.960, Definitions applicable to this subpart

Regulatory Agenda

• The OSHA Regulatory Agenda contains an entry related to electric power transmission and distribution, and electrical protective equipment.

Directives

• Enforcement of the Electric Power Generation, Transmission, and Distribution Standard. CPL 02-01-038 [CPL 2-1.38], (2003, June 18). Assists compliance personnel in performing inspections at electric power generation, transmission, and distribution lines and equipment.
  


• Search all available directives.

Standard Interpretations

Minimum Approach Distance

• Protection of workers operating mechanical equipment near overhead power lines. (1999, December 7). Provides clarification regarding an unqualified crane operator contractor, who is being guided by a qualified journeyman electrician, working in close proximity to unguarded (7,620 to 500,000) voltage.

Fall Protection

• OSHA's requirements for locking type snaphooks on pole strap systems. (1996, March 13). Provides an interpretation of fall protection requirements under 29 CFR 1910.269.
  


• Fall Protection in the power distribution industry. (1995, September 1). Provides an interpretation of the OSHA standards addressing fall protection in the power distribution industry, (29 CFR 1910.269 and 29 CFR 1926.502).

• Search all available standard interpretations.

Other Federal Agencies

• For information on regulations of other Federal Agencies, see the general industry Other Federal Agencies section.

Industry Hazards

Electrocution

• Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution. OSHA eTool. Informs employers of their obligations to develop the appropriate hazard prevention and control methodologies designed to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses.
  


• Construction. OSHA eTool. A Spanish version is also available. Contains information that helps workers identify and control the hazards that cause the most serious construction-related injuries.
  • Contact with power lines. Contains information for workers who may be exposed to the risk of electrocution due to equipment contact with power lines.

Electrocution Reports

• Electrical Safety. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Safety and Health Topic. Provides links to in-house and state based fatality investigation reports of incidents in which electrical incidents resulted in worker deaths, NIOSH publications, and other related web sites.
  


• Worker Deaths by Electrocution: A Summary of Surveillance Findings and Investigative Case Reports. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 98-131, (1998, May). Reports the industries with the highest percentage of electrocutions were construction (40%), transportation, communication, and public utilities (16%), and agriculture, forestry, and fishing (11%).
  


• Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Studies fatal occupational injuries to prevent occupational fatalities across the nation by identifying and investigating work situations at high risk for injury and then formulating and disseminating prevention strategies to those who may intervene in the workplace. It provides users with access to the full text of hundreds of fatality investigation reports, indexes reports by program, industry and cause of fatality. 
  • Apprentice Lineman Electrocuted While Setting Utility Pole, Virginia. FACE 92-30, (1992). A 34-year-old apprentice lineman was electrocuted while assisting a co-worker in setting a wooden utility pole.
  • Electrician Electrocuted after Contacting Energized Conductor While Working from the Bucket of an Aerial Lift Truck--Virginia. FACE 92-25, (1992). A 46-year-old electrician was electrocuted after he contacted an energized power line while working from the bucket of an aerial lift truck. The victim was part of a two-man crew assigned to replace 12 fused electrical cutout switches located on utility poles at a housing project.
  • Lineman Electrocuted after Contacting 7,200-Volt Cutout Switch on Utility Pole in Tennessee. FACE 90-26, (1990). A lineman was electrocuted when he contacted a 7,200-volt cutout switch on a newly installed utility pole. Just before the incident, the victim had climbed the utility pole, installed a cutout switch, and connected it (with a jumper cable) to a 7200-volt conductor that had not yet been energized.
  • Lineman Electrocuted When He Contacts a 7,200-volt Powerline While Installing a Guy Wire in North Carolina. FACE 90-27, (1990). A 30-year-old journeyman lineman was electrocuted when he contacted a 7,200-volt power line while installing a guy wire. The victim was a member of a crew that was installing a new single-phase 7,200-volt power line parallel to, and 24 inches away from, an existing energized single-phase 7,200-volt power line.
  • Utility Company Employee Electrocuted in California While Drilling Under a Road. FACE 85-42, (1985). Crewmen for a gas utility company were using an air-driven machine to drill horizontally under a road to provide new gas line service. One worker was electrocuted and a second was injured when the drill contacted a 4,160-volt power line.
    
  
  
• US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Request for Assistance in Preventing Electrocutions of Crane Operators and Crew Members Working Near Overhead Power Lines. Publication No. 95-108, (1995, May). Describes five cases (six electrocutions) that resulted from the hazards of operating cranes near overhead power lines and makes recommendations for preventing similar incidents.
  • Request for Assistance in Preventing Electrocutions During Work with Scaffolds Near Overhead Power Lines. Publication No. 91-110, (1991, August). Describes 13 deaths that occurred in six separate incidents when workers erected or moved scaffolds that came into contact with energized, overhead power lines, or when they contacted overhead power lines while using conductive tools or materials from scaffolds.
  • Request for Assistance in Preventing Electrocutions of Workers Using Portable Metal Ladders Near Overhead Power Lines. Publication No. 89-110, (1989, July). Describes six deaths that occurred because portable aluminum ladders, which conduct electrical current, came in contact with energized overhead power lines. The lack of compliance with existing regulations in the five incidents described suggests that many employers and workers may be (1) working unaware of these OSHA regulations, (2) misinterpreting the requirements of the regulations, or (3) failing to inform their workers about the dangers of using metal ladders around overhead power lines.
  • Request for Assistance in Preventing Fatalities of Workers Who Contact Electrical Energy. Publication No. 87-103, (1986, December). Prompt emergency medical care can be lifesaving for workers who have contacted either low voltage or high voltage electric energy. Immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) within approximately 4 minutes followed by advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) within approximately 8 minutes has been shown to save lives.
  • Request for Assistance in Preventing Electrocutions from Contact Between Cranes and Power Lines. Publication No. 85-111, (1985, July). Presents information on five cases which resulted in six fatal injuries involving crane-related electrocutions.
    
  
  
• For additional information, see OSHA's Safety and Health Topics Pages on:
  • Electrical - Construction
  • Electrical Contractors Industry
  • Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)

Falls

• Worker Deaths by Falls: A Summary of Surveillance Findings and Investigative Case Reports. US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No. 2000-116, (2000, September). Also available as a 2 MB PDF, 334 pages. Reports that falls from elevations were the fourth leading cause of occupational fatalities from 1980 through 1994. The 8,102 deaths due to falls from elevations accounted for 10 percent of all fatalities and an average of 540 deaths per year. Between 1982 and 1997, NIOSH investigated 90 falls incidents that resulted in 91 fatalities.
  


• Maintenance Technician Drowns After Falling From a Turbine Support-Ring Platform at a Hydroelectric Power Generation Facility in South Carolina. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) 9116, (1991). Two technicians left the basket to inspect the welds. Neither was wearing a buoyancy (life) vest, even though life vests were available at the site and the company required their use.
  


• Electrical Lineman Dies After Falling 35 Feet to the Ground from a Burning Aerial Bucket in South Carolina. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) 9035, (1990). Standard employer practice required the use of common hydraulic hoses (without metal reinforcement) on any area of the boom or aerial bucket that might be placed near energized power lines. The mechanic told investigators that he knew he was installing the wrong type of hose, but did not understand the potential hazards involved. When the hose ruptured while the lineman was using the impact wrench, the spraying hydraulic fluid contacted the hot metal and ignited.
  


• Fall Protection - Construction. OSHA Safety and Health Topics Page.

Confined Spaces

• Confined Spaces - Construction. OSHA Safety and Health Topics Page.

Hazards for Other Workers

Cable Installers

• Wireless Cable TV Service Installer Electrocuted by Overhead Power Line. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Investigations of Fatal Electrical Incidents Report 96MO059. An installer of a wireless cable TV service was electrocuted when the antenna mast he was raising/installing came into contact with a 7,200-volt overhead power line.
  


• Cable Television Installer Electrocuted When Cable Wire Contacts 7,200-Volt Powerline. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Investigations of Fatal Electrical Incidents Report 98MO042. A cable television (CATV) installer was electrocuted when the cable wire he was holding contacted a 7,200-volt power line.
  


• Three Fiber Optic Cable Installers Killed by Contact with Power Line. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE), Nebraska FACE Investigation 98025. A 41-year-old journeyman lineman, a 38-year-old journeyman lineman, and a 24-year-old, all working as cable installers in aerial line construction, were killed when a guy wire contacted an 8,000-volt above-ground power line.

Construction Workers

Crane contacts overhead power line

• Construction: Contact with Power Lines. OSHA.  Contains information for construction workers who may be exposed to the risk of electrocution due to equipment contact with power lines.
  


• Electrocution Resulting from Crane Cable Contact with Power Line. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Investigations of Fatal Electrical Incidents Report 82-03. This report is based on an investigation of a single occupational electrocution resulting from a crane's cable coming in contact with a 7,200-volt power line.

Other

• Laborer Dies of Complications After Receiving Severe Electrical Shock Installing a TV Tower. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE), Indiana State Department of Health Indiana FACE Report. A 51-year-old worker (the decedent), a co-worker, and the employer were installing a TV tower at the side of a building housing the employer's business. As the workers were trying to stabilize the TV tower into the pre-dug hole, it fell and contacted one phase of a three phase 7200-volt overhead power line. The electrical current traveled from phase to ground, killing one worker and giving the co-worker a severe electrical shock.

Safety References

Fall Protection

• OSHA's requirements for locking type snaphooks on pole strap systems. OSHA Standard Interpretation, (1996, March 13). Provides an interpretation of fall protection requirements under 29 CFR 1910.269. The fall protection requirements under paragraph 29 CFR 1910.269(g) do not apply to rural electric cooperatives connecting electrical service to a consumer's home to install electric line attachments. However, the fall protection requirements under paragraph 29 CFR 1910.23(c)(1) do apply to such a workplace application.

Additional Information

Related Safety and Health Topics Pages

• Motor Vehicle Safety - Construction
  


• Scaffolding - Construction

Training

• Construction Industry Safety and Health Outreach Program. OSHA, (1996, May). Contains a section on Hazardous (Classified) Locations and Power Transmission and Distribution. The standards contained in Subpart K and V apply to hazardous location types (such as flammable gasses or vapors, combustible dust, easily ignitable fibers) and to the construction of electric transmission and distribution lines and equipment.

Alliances

• Construction. OSHA's Alliance Program. This is one of OSHA's Strategic Management Plan Focus Areas.

eTools

• Electric Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution. OSHA. This eTool seeks to inform employers of their obligations to develop the appropriate hazard prevention and control methodologies designed to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses.
  


• Construction. OSHA. A Spanish version is also available. Contains information that helps workers identify and control the hazards that cause the most serious construction-related injuries.
  • Contact with Power Lines

Other Resources

• Construction - Pocket Guide. OSHA Publication 3252-05N, (2005). Also available as a 285 KB PDF, 36 pages.

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