New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 12 - DEPARTMENT OF LABOR › Chapter I - Industrial Board Of Appeals › Subchapter A - The Industrial Code › Part 23 - Protection In Construction, Demolition And Excavation Operations › Subpart 23-1 - General Provisions › Section 23-1.13 - Electrical hazards

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a) Operations
					 subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission. None of the
					 provisions of this section shall apply to or in connection with operations
					 conducted by employers, owners, contractors and their agents subject to the
					 jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission.
(b) General.
(1) Precautions. All power lines and power
					 facilities around or near construction, demolition and excavation sites shall
					 be considered as energized until assurance has been given that they are
					 otherwise by qualified representatives of the owners of such power lines or
					 power facilities.
(2) Determination
					 of voltages. Before work is begun at any construction, demolition or excavation
					 site, the employer shall determine the voltage levels of all energized power
					 lines and power facilities around or near such site. Where two or more voltages
					 are available at a job site, all electrical equipment and circuits shall be
					 appropriately identified. Such identification shall include voltage level and
					 phase.
(3) Investigation and
					 warning. Before work is begun the employer shall ascertain by inquiry or direct
					 observation, or by instruments, whether any part of an electric power circuit,
					 exposed or concealed, is so located that the performance of the work may bring
					 any person, tool or machine into physical or electrical contact therewith. The
					 employer shall post and maintain proper warning signs where such a circuit
					 exists. He shall advise his employees of the locations of such lines, the
					 hazards involved and the protective measures to be taken.
(4) Protection of employees. No employer
					 shall suffer or permit an employee to work in such proximity to any part of an
					 electric power circuit that he may contact such circuit in the course of his
					 work unless the employee is protected against electric shock by de-energizing
					 the circuit and grounding it or by guarding such circuit by effective
					 insulation or other means. In work areas where the exact locations of
					 underground electric power lines are unknown, persons using jack hammers, bars
					 or other hand tools which may contact such power lines shall be provided with
					 insulated protective gloves, body aprons and footwear.
(5) Guarding of switches or other circuit
					 interrupting devices. If protection for employees consists of de-energizing
					 circuits, employers shall cause open switches or other circuit interrupting
					 devices to be guarded against inadvertent closing until such employees are no
					 longer exposed.
(6) Notifying
					 utility company. At least five normal working days before work is begun within
					 10 feet of any live overhead power line or before any excavation work is
					 performed which might contact or disturb a live underground power line, the
					 employer shall notify in writing the utility whose power line may be
					 affected.
(7) Generators. Portable
					 electric power generators on any construction, demolition or excavation job
					 site shall have the frames and one pole of the electrical outputs
					 grounded.
(8) Defective insulation.
					 Any wiring found to have cracked insulation or insulation deteriorated in any
					 other way shall be immediately removed from service and discarded.