(a) General requirements.
(1) All equipment left unattended at night, adjacent to a highway in normal use, or adjacent to construction areas where work is in progress, shall have appropriate lights or reflectors, or barricades equipped with appropriate lights or reflectors, to identify the location of the equipment.
(2) A safety tire rack, cage, or equivalent protection shall be provided and used when inflating, mounting, or dismounting tires installed on split rims, or rims equipped with locking rings or similar devices.
(3)
(i) Heavy machinery, equipment, or parts thereof, which are suspended or held aloft by use of slings, hoists, or jacks shall be substantially blocked or cribbed to prevent falling or shifting before employees are permitted to work under or between them. Bulldozer and scraper blades, end-loader buckets, dump bodies, and similar equipment, shall be either fully lowered or blocked when being repaired or when not in use. All controls shall be in a neutral position, with the motors stopped and brakes set, unless work being performed requires otherwise.
(ii) Whenever the equipment is parked, the parking brake shall be set. Equipment parked on inclines shall have the wheels chocked and the parking brake set.
(4) The use, care and charging of all batteries shall conform to the requirements of subpart K of this part.
(5) All cab glass shall be safety glass, or equivalent, that introduces no visible distortion affecting the safe operation of any machine covered by this subpart.
(6) All equipment covered by this subpart shall comply with the following requirements when working or being moved in the vicinity of power lines or energized transmitters, except where electrical distribution and transmission lines have been deenergized and visibly grounded at point of work or where insulating barriers, not a part of or an attachment to the equipment or machinery, have been erected to prevent physical contact with the lines:
(i) For lines rated 50 kV or below, minimum clearance between the lines and any part of the crane or load shall be 10 feet;
(ii) For lines rated over 50 kV, minimum clearance between the lines and any part of the crane or load shall be 10 feet plus 0.4 inch for each 1 kV over 50 kV, or twice the length of the line insulator, but never less than 10 feet;
(iii) In transit with no load and boom lowered, the equipment clearance shall be a minimum of 4 feet for voltages less than 50 kV, and 10 feet for voltages over 50 kV, up to and including 345 kV, and 16 feet for voltages up to and including 750 kV;
(iv) A person shall be designated to observe clearance of the equipment and give timely warning for all operations where it is difficult for the operator to maintain the desired clearance by visual means;
(v) Cage-type boom guards, insulating links, or proximity warning devices may be used on cranes, but the use of such devices shall not alter the requirements of any other regulation of this part even if such device is required by law or regulation;
(vi) Any overhead wire shall be considered to be an energized line unless and until the person owning such line or the electrical utility authorities indicate that it is not an energized line and it has been visibly grounded;
(vii) Prior to work near transmitter towers where an electrical charge can be induced in the equipment or materials being handled, the transmitter shall be de-energized or tests shall be made to determine if electrical charge is induced on the crane. The following precautions shall be taken when necessary to dissipate induced voltages:
(A) The equipment shall be provided with an electrical ground directly to the upper rotating structure supporting the boom; and
(B) Ground jumper cables shall be attached to materials being handled by boom equipment when electrical charge is induced while working near energized transmitters. Crews shall be provided with nonconductive poles having large alligator clips or other similar protection to attach the ground cable to the load.
(C) Combustible and flammable materials shall be removed from the immediate area prior to operations.
(7) Rolling railroad cars. Derail and/or bumper blocks shall be provided on spur railroad tracks where a rolling car could contact other cars being worked, enter a building, work or traffic area.
(b) Specific requirements. [Reserved]
[44 FR 8577, Feb. 9, 1979; 44 FR 20940, Apr. 6, 1979, as amended at 58 FR 35183, June 30, 1993; 75 FR 48134, Aug. 9, 2010]