437-002-2316 Overhead Lines (1) General. This paragraph provides additional requirements for work performed on or near overhead lines and equipment. (a) The employer must determine if elevated structures such as poles or towers are capable of withstanding the additional or unbalanced stresses of climbing or equipment. If the pole or other structure cannot withstand the expected loads, the employer must brace or otherwise support the pole or structure to prevent failure. Note to paragraph (1)(a): Appendix D to Division 2/RR contains test methods that employers can use to determine whether a wood pole is capable of sustaining the forces imposed by an employee climbing the pole. This paragraph also requires the employer to determine that the pole can sustain all other forces imposed by the work employees will perform. (b) When a pole is set, moved, or removed near an exposed energized overhead conductor, the pole may not contact the conductor. (c) Raising poles, towers, or fixtures close to high voltage conductors must be done under the supervision of a worker qualified for this work. (d) Conductive rigging (wire rope) may not be used to raise poles, transformers, and other equipment except when such rigging is below, protected, or at a sufficient distance from energized high voltage conductors to prevent hazardous contact. (e) When a pole is set, moved, or removed near an exposed energized overhead conductor, the employer must ensure that each employee wears electrical protective equipment or uses insulated devices when handling the pole and that no employee contacts the pole with uninsulated parts of their body. (f) To protect employees from falling into holes used for placing poles, the employer must physically guard the holes, or ensure that employees attend the holes, whenever anyone is working nearby. (g) Suitable guards and barriers must be erected so that workers or tools and equipment will not fall into or accidentally contact energized conductors or equipment. (h) Materials and tools other than belt tools for which the body belt is designed: (A) Must be raised or lowered by means of a suitable container or handline. (B) May not be thrown to or from employees working on poles or structures. When field conditions prevent the use of a handline or alternative method from being done safely, a designated drop zone must be established. Clear communication must occur to prevent employees from entering the zone while material is being dropped in a controlled manner. (2) Installing and removing overhead lines. The following provisions apply to the installation and removal of overhead conductors or cable (overhead lines). (a) When lines that employees are installing or removing can contact energized parts, the employer must use the tension-stringing method, barriers, or other equivalent measures to minimize the possibility that conductors and cables the employees are installing or removing will contact energized power lines or equipment. (b) For conductors, cables, and pulling and tensioning equipment, the employer must provide the protective measures required by 437-002-2315 (4)(d) when employees are installing or removing a conductor or cable close enough to energized conductors that any of the following failures could energize the pulling or tensioning equipment or the conductor or cable being installed or removed: (A) Failure of the pulling or tensioning equipment, (B) Failure of the conductor or cable being pulled, or (C) Failure of the previously installed lines or equipment. (c) If the conductors that employees are installing or removing cross over energized conductors in excess of 600 volts and if the design of the circuit interrupting devices protecting the lines so permits, the employer must render inoperable the automatic-reclosing feature of these devices. (d) Before employees install lines parallel to existing energized lines, the employer must make a determination of the approximate voltage to be induced in the new lines, or work must proceed on the assumption that the induced voltage is hazardous. Unless the employer can demonstrate that the lines that employees are installing are not subject to the induction of a hazardous voltage or unless the lines are treated as energized, temporary protective grounds must be placed at such locations and arranged in such a manner that the employer can demonstrate will prevent exposure of each employee to hazardous differences in electric potential. NOTE 1 to paragraph (2)(d): If the employer takes no precautions to protect employees from hazards associated with involuntary reactions from electric shock, a hazard exists if the induced voltage is sufficient to pass a current of 1 milliampere through a 500-ohm resistor. If the employer protects employees from injury due to involuntary reactions from electric shock, a hazard exists if the resultant current would be more than 6 milliamperes. NOTE 2 to paragraph (2)(d): Appendix C to Division 2/RR rule contains guidelines for protecting employees from hazardous differences in electric potential as required by this paragraph. (e) Conductors being strung must not be allowed to slack enough to be in reach of traffic or pedestrians, unless guarded by flaggers or other suitable safeguards. (f) Reel-handling equipment, including pulling and tensioning devices, must be in safe operating condition and must be leveled and aligned. (g) When stringing or removing conductors under tension, sleeves must not be pulled through the bull wheel or the puller on the tension machine unless appropriate safeguards are taken. (h) A qualified employee, or an experienced person under the supervision of a qualified employee, must be placed in charge of the reels as the reel tender. (i) Reel handling equipment, including pulling, braking, and sagging equipment must be firmly anchored or secured during operations. (j) The employer must ensure that employees do not exceed load ratings of stringing lines, pulling lines, conductor grips, load-bearing hardware and accessories, rigging, and hoists. (k) When replacing a conductor with a new or larger conductor, the conductor being removed may not be used to pull in the new one unless the one being removed has been carefully inspected for its entire length and then adjudged to have adequate strength. (l) The employer must repair or replace defective pulling lines and accessories. (m) Each pull must be snubbed or dead ended at both ends before subsequent pulls. (n) The employer must ensure that employees do not use conductor grips on wire rope unless the manufacturer specifically designed the grip for this application. (o) The employer must ensure that employees maintain reliable communications, through two-way radios or other equivalent means, between the reel tender and the pulling rig operator. (p) Employees may operate the pulling rig only when it is safe to do so. NOTE to paragraph (2)(p): Examples of unsafe conditions include: employees in locations prohibited by paragraph (2)(q) of this rule, conductor and pulling line hang-ups, and slipping of the conductor grip. (q) While a power-driven device is pulling the conductor or pulling line and the conductor or pulling line is in motion, the employer must ensure that employees are not directly under overhead operations or on the cross arm, except as necessary for the employees to guide the stringing sock or board over or through the stringing sheave. (3) Live-line bare-hand work is prohibited. (4) Towers and structures. The following requirements apply to work performed on towers or other structures that support overhead lines. (a) The employer must ensure that no employee is under a tower or structure while work is in progress, except when the employer can demonstrate that such a working position is necessary to assist employees working above. (b) The employer must ensure that employees use tag lines or other similar devices to maintain control of tower rules being raised or positioned, unless the employer can demonstrate that the use of such devices would create a greater hazard to employees. (c) The employer must ensure that employees do not detach the loadline from a member or rule until they safely secure the load. (d) The employer must ensure that, except during emergency restoration procedures, employees discontinue work when adverse weather conditions would make the work hazardous in spite of the work practices required by this rule. NOTE to paragraph (4)(d): Thunderstorms in the vicinity, high winds, snow storms, and ice storms are examples of adverse weather conditions that make this work too hazardous to perform even after the employer implements the work practices required by this rule. Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 654.025(2) & 656.726(4) Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 654.001 - 654.295 History: OSHA 3-2015, f. 10-9-15, cert. ef. 1-1-16