Tudor Van Hampton/ENR Accident prevention is focus of federal crane rules.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is seeking public comments on a long-awaited proposal to update its 40-year-old crane rules.

A panel of industry experts convened more than four years ago negotiated the new crane and derrick rules, which cover major hazards in light of new technology, labor demands and work methods. New requirements include provisions for powerline safety, ground conditions, equipment inspections, signaling qualifications and crane operator certification.

Standard testing requirements, or certifications, for crane operators would go into effect four years after the rule is implemented. OSHA declines to give timetables for final implementation of the proposed rule.

"We don't speculate on timelines," says an OSHA spokeswoman. The agency could hold hearings, release revised drafts of the rules and take several more years to finalize the proposed regulation, industry sources say.

The proposed rules as they stand would cost the construction industry $123.2 million per year but would provide a payback of $283 million annually, says OSHA. The major savings would be in averted deaths and injuries. Property damage and loss is not factored into the regulation's cost-benefit analysis.

Operator certification is the single-largest cost component of the proposed rule, estimated at $37.3 million per year. About 164,500 companies, 96,000 cranes and 86,000 operators would be subject to the new rules, says the proposal. Roughly 70% of existing operators would need to be certified and 8% would need annual testing due to labor turnover, OSHA estimates.

Though several industry stakeholders objected to the new testing requirements, many others found that it "adequately addresses a long-neglected problem for the construction industry," says the proposal.

More than 89 people die every year due to crane accidents and related hazards, according to federal statistics. The rule would not avert every crane-related accident but would eliminate the majority of them by saving 53 lives and preventing 155 injuries per year, OSHA says.

The proposal was originally slated for the comment period to begin on Oct.
3. Comments are now due Dec. 8. The complete proposal is published in today's Federal Register