January 26, 2005—The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued an online Safety and Health Information Bulletin concerning the Hazard of Potential Sidewalk Grate System Failure.
OSHA explains that many sidewalks and roadways near large urban buildings incorporate surface grate systems to cover vaults and pits. In heavy snowstorms, snow accumulates on the grates. During a snowstorm in 2003, a skid-steer loader being used to clear sidewalk snow near a large hospital in the Greater Boston area fell into a vault when the grate system failed under the weight of the loader, fatally injuring the operator. This incident led OSHA to issue the bulletin. Pictures of the crashed grate are included on the site.
The bulletin’s purpose is to alert employers and employees using skid-steer loaders and other heavy machinery to clear snow or debris from grate systems over pits and vaults that these grate systems may fail under the weight of the loaders/machinery, and that they must determine whether local building codes permit heavy machinery to be operated on sidewalks and over grate systems.
The bulletin also reminds employers that OSHA standards for Walking-Working Surfaces that address floor opening covers and their supports require that they meet standard strength and construction requirements; and recommends that all such surface grate systems be inspected regularly and that employers must take steps to ensure that these grate systems have the capacity to support the weight of heavy machinery, unless procedures are implemented to effectively prevent the operation of heavy machinery on such grates.
