A COMPARISON OF OLD AND NEW OSHA REGULATIONS ON CRANES AND DERRICKS USING COMPREHENSIVE GAP ANALYSIS

Aiming at reducing deaths and injuries involving construction crane operations, OSHA has recently updated its 40-year-old crane safety standards with new rules addressing the use of cranes and derricks in construction. The goal of this change in rule is to deal with the leading causes of fatalities related to crane and derrick operations. Employers in the construction industry are mandated to ensure that employees in the work zone are trained to recognize hazards associated with the use of the equipment and any related duties that they are assigned to perform. However, those responsible at construction sites for the supervision and management of safe crane operations often lack the integrated knowledge of the standards, regulations and best practices for conducting or supervising daily, monthly, or quarterly inspection of cranes. As such, proper planning, management and implementation of crane operations, including inspections are just as paramount to reducing accidents on the construction site. It is important that engineers responsible for the management and planning of crane operations understand the latest OSHA crane and hoisting standards to ensure a safer work environment is maintained. Many on site engineers overseeing crane operations do not have adequate training, experience, and knowledge of the inspection requirements to assess safe crane operation and too often rely on the crane operator's judgement. This paper highlights recent research effort in defining significant changes in new crane and hoisting standards and provides basis for safety construction operations.