UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300871183 - Flatiron Construction Corp

Inspection Information - Office: Ca Los Angeles

Investigation Summary

At 8:30 a.m., on July 1, 2010, Employee #1 was operating a backhoe for the Flatiron Construction Corp. The company was a heavy construction contractor specializing in paving. It was working on a new taxiway at Los Angeles International Airport, which had to be thick enough to support new jumbo jets. The finished surface was to be nineteen inches thick. As part of the preparation work, an old asphalt-covered taxiway was being demolished. The area had been marked by "Dig Alert" to indicate buried electrical lines. There were electrical vaults in front of the tractor about twenty yards away, to the right of the tractor about 3 yards away, and behind the tractor about fifty yards away. The asphalt had been marked in red where the wires entered and exited the vaults, and on the asphalt in front of the tractor. There was no marking, however, on the side of the vault to the operator's right to indicate any lines entering it. The job being performed at the time of the accident was "potholing" for soil samples to test for chemical contamination. Because the lines entering the nearby vault had not been marked, the operator assumed there were no cables where he was digging. As he dug, he contacted conductors energized at 34.5 kilovolts approximately twelve inches below the surface. He had been well trained, and as a result he stayed in the cab of his tractor until emergency crews deenergized the conductors. This took approximately 3 hours. Employee #1 was not injured.

Keywords:e gi iv, electrical, airport, construction, lockout, e c, backhoe, undrgrd power line, e gi ib