Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Standard Operating Procedure Pages of 15 Fall Protection

Personalfall arrest system - means a system used to arrest an employee in a fall from a working level. It consists of an anchorage, connectors, a body belt or body harness and may include a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or suitable combinations of these. As of January 1, 1998, the use of a body belt for fall arrest is prohibited.

Positioning device system - means a body belt or body harness system rigged to allow an employee to be supported on an elevated vertical surface, such as a wall, and work with both hands free while leaning.

Rope grab - means a deceleration device which travels on a lifeline and automatically, by friction, engages the lifeline and locks so as to arrest the fall of an employee. A rope grab usually employs the principle of inertial locking, cam/level locking, or both.

Roof- means the exterior surface on the top of a building. This does not include floors or formwork which, because a building has not been completed, temporarily become the top surface of a building. "Roofing work" means the hoisting, storage, application, and removal of roofing materials and equipment, including related insulation, sheet metal, and vapor barrier woik, but not including the construction of the roof deck.

Safety-monitoring system - means a safety system in which a competent person is responsible for recognizing and warning employees of fall hazards.

Self-retracting lifeline/lanyard - means a deceleration device containing a drum-wound line which can be slowly extracted from, or retracted onto, the drum under slight tension during normal employee movement, and which, after onset of a fall, automatically locks the drum and arrests the fall.

Snaphook - means a cormector comprised of a hook-shaped member with a normally closed keeper, or similar arrangement, which may be opened to permit the hook to receive an object and, when released, automatically closes to retain the object. Snaphooks must be the self-closing, self-locking keeper which remains closed and locked until unlocked and pressed open for connection or disconnection.

Steep roof- means a roof having a slope greater than 4 in 12 (vertical to horizontal).

Toeboard - mews a low protective barrier that will prevent the fall of materials and equipment to lower levels and provide protection from falls for personnel.

Unprotected sides and edges - means any side or edge (except at entrances to points of access) of a walking/working surface, e.g., floor, roof, ramp, or runway where there is no wall or guardrail system at least 39 inches (1.0 m) high*

Walking/working surface - means any surface, whether horizontal or vertical on which an employee walks or works, including, but not limited to, floors, roofs, ramps, bridges, runways, formwork and concrete reinforcing steel but not including ladders, vehicles, or trailers, on which employees must be located in order to perform their job duties.

Warning line system - means a barrier erected on a roof to warn employees that they are approaching an improtected roof side or edge, and which designates an area in which roofing work may take place without the use of guardrail, body belt, or safety net systems to protect employees in the area.

Work area - means that portion of a walking/working surface where job duties are being performed.

4.0 RESPONSIBILITY

All WRS employees and subcontractor employees covered by this SOP are responsible for complying with its contents. Supervisors are responsible for implementing and enforcing the SOP and securing the resouces necessary to implement it.

NYC-WTC_000145142