34 Pa. Code Ch. 39 — Safety Standards—General

§ 39.326. Protective devices. There shall be provided in conspicuous and suitable places in electrical stations, testing departments, and line construction and repair wagons, a sufficient supply of suitable protective, first aid and fire-extinguishing devices and equipment, to en…

§ 39.327. Warning and danger signs. (a) There shall be displayed in conspicuous places at unattended and unlocked entrances to electrical supply stations, substations, and testing rooms, containing exposed current-carrying parts or moving parts, permanent warning signs forbidding…

§ 39.33. Construction. (a) Trenches and excavations. There shall be compliance with all the provisions of Chapter 33 (Reserved) if work is performed in trenches and excavations. (b) Construction and demolition. All work involving construction shall be performed in accordance with…

RULES FOR EMPLOYES—GENERAL PRECAUTIONS § 39.331. Rules and emergency method. (a) Safety rules shall be carefully read and studied. Employes may be called upon at any time to show their knowledge of the rules. (b) Employes should familiarize themselves with approved methods of fir…

§ 39.332. Heeding warnings, warning others. (a) Employes whose duties do not require them to approach or handle electrical equipment and lines should keep away from such equipment or lines. (b) Employes shall be cautious, heed warning signs and signals, and warn others when seen …

§ 39.333. Inexperienced or unfit employes. No employe shall do work for which he is not properly qualified on or about live equipment or lines, except under the direct supervision of an experienced and properly qualified person. Cross References This section cited in 34 Pa. Code …

§ 39.334. Supervision of workmen. Workmen whose employment incidentally brings them in the neighborhood of electrical supply equipment or lines with the dangers of which they are not familiar shall proceed with their work only when authorized. They shall then be accompanied by a …

§ 39.335. Exercising care. Employes about live equipment and lines should consider the effect of each act and do nothing which may endanger themselves or others. Employes should be careful always to place themselves in a safe and secure position and to avoid slipping, stumbling, …

§ 39.336. Live and arcing parts. (a) Everything shall be treated as alive. Electrical equipment and lines shall always be considered as alive, unless they are positively known to be dead. Before work is begun, a preliminary inspection or test should always be made to determine wh…

§ 39.337. Safety appliances and suitable clothing. (a) Safety appliances. Employes at work on or near live parts should use the protective devices and special tools provided, first examining them to make sure that these devices and tools are suitable and in good condition. Protec…

§ 39.338. Safe supports and safety belts. (a) Safe supports. Employes should not support themselves on any portion of a tree, pole structure, scaffold, ladder, or other elevated structure without first making sure that the supports are strong enough, reinforcing them if necessary…

§ 39.339. Fire extinguishers. Employes should avoid using fire extinguishing liquids which are not insulating in fighting fires near exposed live parts. If necessary to use them, neighboring equipment should first be killed. Reference should also be made to § § 39.381—39.391 (rel…

§ 39.34. Report of accidents. (a) All injuries should be reported at once to the dispensary or hospital for treatment. (b) Under act of July 19, 1913 (No. 408) (43 P.S. § 12), all accidents incurred in the course of employment and causing disability in excess of the working shift…

§ 39.340. Repeating messages. To avoid misunderstandings and to prevent accidents, each person receiving an unwritten message concerning the handling of lines and equipment shall immediately repeat it back to the sender and secure his full name and acknowledgment. Each person sen…

GENERAL OPERATIONS § 39.351. Duties of chief operator. (a) The chief operator, described in § 39.316 (relating to chief operator) shall keep informed of conditions affecting the safe and reliable operation of the system, and shall keep a suitable record or log book showing change…

§ 39.352. Duties of foreman. (a) Each foreman in charge of work shall adopt such precautions as are within his power to prevent accidents and to see that the safety rules are observed by the employes under his direction. He shall make all the necessary records, reporting to his c…

§ 39.353. Special authorization. (a) Special work. Special authorization from the chief operator shall be secured before work is begun on or about station equipment, transmission, or interconnected feeder lines or live lines above 7,500 volts, and in all cases where lines are to …

§ 39.354. Restoring service after work. No instructions for making alive equipment or lines which have been killed by permission of the chief operator to protect workmen shall be issued by him until workmen concerned have been reported clear. When there is more than one workman a…

§ 39.355. Maintaining service. (a) When live circuits on which ‘‘men at work’’ tags have been placed are opened automatically, they should be kept disconnected until the chief operator has given proper authorization for reconnection. (b) When overhead circuits other than trolley …

§ 39.356. Tagging electrical supply circuits. Before work is done under special authorization of the chief operator on or about any equipment or lines used as transmission or interconnected feeder lines, or lines operating above 7,500 volts, or lines killed at stations or substat…

§ 39.357. Protecting traffic. (a) Barrier guards. Before engaging in such work as may endanger traffic, employes shall first erect suitable barrier guards. They shall also display danger signs or red lamps from two sides of the barriers at right angles to the direction of the tra…

§ 39.358. Protecting workmen by disconnectors. When equipment or lines are to be disconnected from any source of electrical energy, for the protection of workmen, the operator shall first open the switches or circuit breakers designed for operation under load, and then the air br…

HANDLING LIVE EQUIPMENT AND LINES § 39.361. Definitions. The following words and terms, when used in this section and § § 39.362—39.371 have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise: Voltage—In general the highest effective voltage between the conduc…

§ 39.362. General provisions. (a) When one circuit is directly connected to another circuit of higher voltage, as in the case of an autotransformer, both are considered as of the higher voltage, unless the circuit of the lower voltage is permanently grounded. Direct connection im…

§ 39.363. General requirements. (a) Touching live parts. No employe should touch with bare hands at the same time two parts at different potential; nor should he touch with bare hands even a single exposed ungrounded live part at a dangerous potential to ground unless he is insul…

§ 39.364. Voltages between 750 and 7500. No employe should go, or take any conducting object within, six inches of any exposed live part whose voltage exceeds 750, in stations, in testing rooms, in underground construction, or in overhead construction, if it is practicable to avo…

§ 39.365. Voltages above 7500. (a) No employe should go, or take any conducting object, within the distances named below from any exposed live part at or above the voltage specified, except as permitted by this section; (distance for intermediate voltage to be determined by inter…

§ 39.366. Requirement for two workmen. Except in trouble and emergency work, no employe shall work alone dangerously near live lines above 750 volts in wet weather or at night. Cross References This section cited in 34 Pa. Code § 39.361 (relating to definitions); 34 Pa. Code § 39…

§ 39.367. When to kill parts. No employe shall approach or willingly permit others to approach any exposed underground part normally alive, except as provided in § § 39.363—39.365 (relating to general requirements; voltages between 750 and 7,500; and voltages above 7,500), unless…

§ 39.368. Operating switches and working from below. (a) Opening and closing switches. Manual switches and disconnectors should be closed by a single unhesitating motion, and, if possible, with one hand. Care should be exercised in opening switches to avoid causing serious arcing…

§ 39.369. Attaching connecting wires and grounds. (a) Handling connecting lines. In connecting dead equipment or lines to a live circuit by means of a connecting wire or device, employes should first attach the wire to the dead part before attaching it to the circuit. When discon…

§ 39.370. Handling series circuits. Secondaries of current transformers to meters or other devices, should not be opened when alive, until a jumper has been connected across the point of opening or such secondary has been short circuited elsewhere. Before working on arc lights or…

§ 39.371. Stringing wires. Wires being strung near live conductors, should be treated as alive unless effectively grounded. Cross References This section cited in 34 Pa. Code § 39.361 (relating to definitions); 34 Pa. Code § 39.411 (relating to general provisions); 34 Pa. Code § …

KILLING SUPPLY EQUIPMENT AND LINES § 39.381. General provisions. (a) When workmen depend on others for operating switches to kill circuits on which they are to work, or when they first secure special authorization from the chief operator before themselves operating such switches,…

§ 39.382. Workman’s request. The workman in charge of the work shall apply to the chief operator to have the particular section of equipment or lines killed, identifying it by position, letter, color, number or other means. Cross References This section cited in 34 Pa. Code § 39.…

§ 39.383. Opening disconnectors and tagging. (a) The chief operator at his discretion shall direct the proper persons to open switches and air break disconnectors through which electrical energy may be supplied to the particular section of equipment and lines to be killed and sha…

§ 39.384. Station protective grounds. When the switches and disconnectors designated have been opened, blocked, and tagged in accordance with § 39.383 (relating to opening disconnectors and tagging), the chief operator shall require each person operating them to make protective g…

§ 39.385. Permission to work. Upon receipt of information from persons operating switches and disconnectors that protective grounds are in place the chief operator shall advise the workman who requested the killing of the section that the specified section of equipment or lines h…

§ 39.386. Protective grounds of workmen for overhead lines. The workman in charge should immediately proceed to make his own protective grounds on the disconnected lines, except under conditions where the making of such ground is itself more hazardous than working on the lines wi…

§ 39.387. Proceeding with work. After the equipment or lines have been killed and grounded, if required by § 39.386 (relating to protective grounds of workmen for overhead lines), the workman in charge and those under his direction may proceed with work without taking the precaut…

§ 39.388. Procedure for other gangs. Each additional workman in charge desiring the same equipment or lines to be killed for the protection of himself or the men under his direction shall follow the same procedure as the first workman and secure similar protection. Cross Referenc…

§ 39.389. Reporting clear-transferring responsibility. (a) The workman in charge, upon completion of his work, and after assuring himself that men under his direction are in safe positions, shall remove his protective grounds and shall report to the chief operator that tags prote…

§ 39.390. Removal of tags. (a) The chief operator shall then direct the removal of tags for that workman and the removal shall be reported back to him immediately by the persons removing them. (b) Upon the removal of any tag, there shall be added to the record the name of the chi…

§ 39.391. Restoring service. Only after protecting tags have been removed as outlined in § 39.390 (relating to removal of tags) from points of disconnection shall the chief operator at his discretion, direct the removal of protective grounds and blocks and the closing of any or a…

§ 39.3a. Interpretation of Federal preemption of State regulations—statement of policy. (a) Purpose. The purpose of this statement of policy is to clarify for the regulated community the Department’s interpretation of Federal preemption of the State regulations in this subchapter…

§ 39.4. Effect. The safe practices described in this subchapter largely conform to common sense and are aimed at a considerable reduction of industrial accidents. Those requirements using the terminology ‘‘shall’’ rather than ‘‘should’’ are enforceable as mandatory requirements, …

MAKING PROTECTIVE GROUNDS § 39.401. General provisions. When making temporary protective grounds on a normally live circuit the precautionary measures of this section and § § 39.401—39.405 shall be observed in the order given, and the ground shall be made to all wires of the circ…

§ 39.402. Ground connections. The employe making a protective ground on equipment or lines shall first connect one end of the grounding device to an effective ground connection supplied for that purpose. Cross References This section cited in 34 Pa. Code § 39.384 (relating to sta…

§ 39.403. Test of circuit. Normally live parts which are to be grounded should next be tested for any indication of voltage, the employe carefully keeping portions of his body at the distance required from such parts when alive by the use of suitable insulating rods or handles of…

§ 39.404. Completing grounds. (a) If the test shows no voltage, or the local operating rules so direct, the free end of the grounding device shall next be brought into contact with the normally live part and securely clamped or otherwise secured to such part, before the employe c…