THE COHEN GROUP
  Environmental Health & Safety Consulting Services

The Cohen Group Newsletter - Volume 8  Issue 2, Article 3.  May, 2006

Cal/OSHA is proposing two changes to the Construction Safety Orders pertaining to fall protection. The first proposal is winding its way through the public comment process at the time of this newsletter. It involves lowering the fall protection trigger height for new residential roofing construction to 15 feet from the present 20-foot requirement. This change will apply only to the construction of new, production-type residential structures with roof slopes of 3:12 or greater. It will not apply to custom homes, roof additions, re-roofing work or commercial structures, for which the 20-foot trigger height will remain unchanged.

The proposed regulatory change on residential construction was requested by the construction industry for several reasons. Reportedly, the 20-foot trigger has caused some bidding problems for contractors because it doesn’t clearly apply to all two-story home projects as it does with three-story structures. Sometimes, requirements to provide fall protection for employees can unexpectedly arise after construction has been in progress for some time because of varying site conditions that weren’t foreseen during the pre-work bidding process. The industry group Cal-PASC (California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors), who petitioned Cal-OSHA for the change, believes that the 15-foot trigger provides a "clear demarcation" between one and two stories for these types of projects. Furthermore, recent advances in fall protection systems make it easier than before for employers to provide such systems for two-story structures.

The proposal process ended its 45-day comment period when the Standards Board held its public hearing on the issue on May 18 (occurring at the time of this newsletter). If accepted, the new requirements, including a subsection on fall hazards awareness training, will be contained in a new section, §1731, of the Construction Safety Orders (CSO). The outcome of the Standards Board meeting is after the date of printing of this article.

The other proposal before the Standards Board involves proposed changes to§1620, §1626 and §1639 of the Construction Safety Orders, pertaining to the design and construction of railings, and the requirements for providing temporary guardrails around stairwells and railings on stairs. Because the existing provisions in these sections were reviewed and found not to be "at least as effective as" the corresponding Federal standards, the Standards Board has proposed to revise them. Most of the proposed changes are non-substantive and are designed to clarify and reorganize the requirements.

However, there are some minor proposed changes to the minimum strength requirements for temporary wood guardrails. Perhaps the most significant modification is a new specification that a guardrail must be capable of withstanding, without failure, a force of at least 200 pounds in any outward or downward direction, at any point along the top edge. Currently, section 1620(f) requires that guardrails must withstand a force of 13 pounds per linear foot applied either horizontally or vertically at the top rail. There are

no major changes in the proposal that will alter the way fall protection is to be provided in the future by contractors around floor, stair and wall openings. Let us know if you have any questions regarding these proposed modifications to the Cal/OSHA standards.