OSHA ready to start work on new crane and derrick safety standard. (Washington Watch).

Underground Construction, May, 2003 by Barlas, Stephen

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is about to start updating federal standards on crane and derrick safety. The first order of business is to appoint a Negotiated Rulemaking Committee, members of which will be chosen from among the names OSHA published in February. The committee is expected to start meeting in late spring. Its charge will be to update OSHA standards adopted in 1971, which were based on consensus industry standards existing at the time.

There have been considerable technological changes since. For example, hydraulic cranes were rare at that time but are now prevalent. The existing OSHA standard does not specifically address hydraulic cranes. In contrast, industry consensus standards for derricks were updated in 1995 and...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.