Tag: underground

Innovative Fire Suppression Solutions for System and Worker Safety

Written by Edward Morson and Mark Green on June 12, 2018. Posted in Worksite Safety.

For over 100 years, PECO – a Pennsylvania utility and member of the Exelon utility family – has been supplying electricity and natural gas to customers across southeastern Pennsylvania, including those in Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs. PECO has hundreds of miles of utility poles and thousands of circuit miles of medium-voltage distribution cables installed in conduit and manhole systems. With all this infrastructure, it is only natural that wear and tear will occur, which can have an impact on the distribution system. Over the decades, PECO has experienced numerous failures of distribution...

Safety Concerns When Working In and Around Manholes and Vaults

Written by Michael Stremel, CUSP on September 11, 2017. Posted in Safety Management, Tailgate Topics.

Some utilities – including electric, cable and communications providers – have had both underground and overhead applications for many years. However, more and more of these utilities now are either primarily installing their services underground or relocating overhead services underground, for a variety of reasons. These include reliability and protection from weather conditions, as well as minimizing exposure to equipment, vehicular traffic and farming operations. In addition to these safety concerns, utilities are installing services underground due to customer requests to improve the general...

October 2017 Q&A

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on September 11, 2017. Posted in Worksite Safety, Q & A.

Q: We have gotten mixed advice from our colleagues at other utilities and can’t decide whether or not civil workers digging a foundation by hand in a hot substation should be required to wear arc protective clothing. They are inside the fence but in a new area approximately 20 feet from the nearest distribution structure. Where do we find the requirements or OSHA guidance? A: That depends. Sometimes it depends on the criteria in the statutes, and sometimes it depends on compliance with company policy. Normally, following the guidelines of OSHA 29 CFR 1910.269(l)(8) – which establish the criteria...

Voice of Experience: De-Energizing Lines and Equipment for Employee Protection

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on August 8, 2017. Posted in Worksite Safety, Voice of Experience.

Lately there has been a rash of incidents involving flashes and contacts with primary voltage. The incidents occurred due to improperly written switching orders or missed switching steps, none of which were recognized by the workers involved with the tasks. These types of errors have long been a problem and continue to result in numerous injuries and fatalities. In April 2014, OSHA’s revised 29 CFR 1910.269 standard was published. This was the first revision to the standard in 20 years, and one paragraph in particular that was clarified was paragraph (m), “Deenergizing lines and equipment...

August 2017 Q&A

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 8, 2017. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety, Q & A, Grounding.

Q: We are a contractor and were recently working in a manhole with live primary cables running through it. We were cited in an audit by a client’s safety team for not having our people in the manhole tied off to rescue lines. We had a tripod up and a winch ready for the three workers inside. What did we miss? A: This question has come up occasionally, and it’s usually a matter of misunderstanding the OSHA regulations. The latest revision of the rule has modified the language, but following is the relevant regulation. Look for the phrases “safe work practices,” “safe rescue” and “enclosed space.” 1910.269(e)(1) Safe...

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Confined Space Training: It Has to Be Done Right the First Time

Written by Tony Barton on April 18, 2017. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

Entering and working in confined spaces is serious business. In the years I’ve been a safety professional, I’ve been involved with several hundred confined space entries, including overseeing entries into most of the confined space examples listed in the scope of OSHA’s “Confined Spaces in Construction” standard. A number of times I’ve been called to the scene of a confined space entry where the entrants had been evacuated because of alarms from direct-reading portable gas monitors. Some of these alarms were caused by degradation of atmospheric conditions, while others were due to operator...

Using Thermography for Underground Worker Safety

Written by Peter Tyschenko and Michael Meathe on April 18, 2017. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

For more than 100 years, Commonwealth Edison – commonly known as ComEd – has been powering the lives of customers across Northern Illinois, including those in Chicago, a city that has thousands of circuit miles of medium-voltage distribution cables installed in conduit and manhole systems. Over the decades, ComEd’s underground cable splicers have experienced failures of distribution cable system components, including cables, joints and terminations, while employees were working in manholes and vaults. A large number of cable system failures occurred at cable joints in underground manholes....

Voice of Experience: Switching and Working on UD Systems

Written by Danny Raines, CUSP on December 12, 2016. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety, Voice of Experience, Equipment Operations.

I was recently asked to provide information about the challenges and opportunities found when working on direct-buried underground distribution (UD) systems. In light of that request, I’ll address those topics in this installment of “Voice of Experience.” My first opportunity to work on UD systems was as a truck driver operating a trencher in the late 1960s. UD systems were fairly new at the time; lineworkers were learning new techniques, using different types of tools to terminate cables and installing switchable elbows. In that day, some elbows were non-load-break. Back then the work was all...

Underground Electrical Vaults: Safety Concerns and Controls

Written by Chris Grajek, CRSP, CUSP on October 12, 2016. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

There are hundreds of thousands of man-accessible vaults in North America, with potentially tens of thousands of utility worker entries into those vaults each year. And it’s likely that every worker who enters a vault appreciates the safety procedures that govern the work. The combination of high-voltage electrical cables and aging infrastructure can exponentially complicate even the most routine vault-related task. In addition, many utilities across North America continue to report electrical vault failures, some of which lead to violent explosions. For the most part, utility owners have a...

Tricks of the Trade to Improve the Trenching Environment

Written by Jarred O'Dell, CSP, CUSP on August 22, 2016. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

This is the final installment in a four-part series on trenching and excavation. “Trenching by the Numbers” (http://incident-prevention.com/blog/trenching-by-the-numbers), the first article in the series, presented a simple method for recalling OSHA’s trenching and excavation requirements. The second article focused on soil mechanics (http://incident-prevention.com/blog/soil-mechanics-in-the-excavation-environment), taking an in-depth look at the behavior and characteristics of different soil types and their relationships with water and air. In the June 2016 issue of Incident Prevention, I...

Train the Trainer 101: Practical Personal Grounding in Underground Work

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 22, 2016. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety, Train the Trainer 101.

Incident Prevention has been covering personal protective grounding (PPG) for many years. Most of the emphasis has been on overhead applications for transmission and distribution. Lately, however, iP and many consultants associated with the publication have been receiving more and more inquiries from utilities seeking to understand the issues related to PPG applications in underground. Part of the issue with PPG is that, as I mentioned, most training and rules seem to coalesce around overhead applications. The majority of the written standards – both OSHA and consensus – are found in sections...

Protective Systems for Trenching and Excavations

Written by Jarred O'Dell, CSP, CUSP on June 10, 2016. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

This is the third installment of a four-part series on trenching principles. “Trenching by the Numbers” (http://incident-prevention.com/blog/trenching-by-the-numbers), the first article in the series, presented a simple method for recalling OSHA’s trenching and excavation requirements. The second article focused on soil mechanics (http://incident-prevention.com/blog/soil-mechanics-in-the-excavation-environment), taking an in-depth look at the behavior and characteristics of different soil types and their relationships with water and air. In this article, we will discuss the four different protective...

Trenching by the Numbers

Written by Jarred O'Dell, CSP, CUSP on February 12, 2016. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety, Equipment Operations.

By and large, organizations directly provide the training and other resources needed for the development of their foremen and crew chiefs. Such training tends to be built around two components: following the standards set forth by OSHA and other regulatory agencies, and adhering to organizational policies and procedures. This is a great approach but perhaps an incomplete one. Truly impactful safety training typically includes a third component: sharing of personal experience. For instance, I once observed a training session in which the instructor drew from his experiences during a discussion...

Train the Trainer 101: Practical Underground Safety: Handling Neutrals and Rescue

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on December 16, 2015. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

Over the years I spent as a lineman, I did my share of underground installation and maintenance work. During my years in safety, I have seen the expansion of safety processes associated with underground, especially in response to the most recent OSHA changes. Not all of the changes have been effective, and that’s why we’re now going to spend some time addressing several underground safety questions Incident Prevention frequently receives. We’ll look at the rules and practices and what works from a practical perspective. Handling URD NeutralsThis will not come as news to most of you, but for...

August 2015 Q&A

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 16, 2015. Posted in Safety Management, Worksite Safety.

Q: I’m wondering about an issue with a third-party safety analysis required by one of our clients. We are required to satisfy their safety requirements, including creating programs and safety manual changes worded to meet their criteria. I have issues with the required changes because they don’t fit into our safety program. A: You are not alone in your concerns. OSHA issued a warning about this exact topic, and it was a reason for changing the language in the proposed rules from June 2005. In the proposed rule, 29 CFR 1926.950(c) required contractors to follow a utility’s work rules...

Notes From the Underground

Written by Jim Vaughn, CUSP on August 1, 2005. Posted in Worksite Safety.

In the May/June 2005 issue of Incident Prevention the cover article, “Why Single-Point Grounding Works,” generated a lot of inquires about single-point worksite grounding in underground installations. The most frequently asked question was, “How do we create an equipotential zone for underground worksites?” I received inquiries from California to Maine, North Dakota to Florida. There were so many that IP asked if I could immediately address underground protective grounding for employees in this issue. OF BONDS AND BOUNDARIES Let’s begin with the practicality of...