Occupational Safety and Health Administration October 2, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice announces the grant of a permanent variance to Avalotis Corp., Bowen Engineering Corporation, Commonwealth Dynamics, Inc., Gibraltar Chimney International, LLC, Hamon Custodis, Inc., Hoffmann, Inc., International Chimney Corporation, Karrena International Chimney, Kiewit Power Constructors Co., Matrix SME, Inc., NAES Power Contractors, Pullman Power, LLC, R and P Industrial Chimney Co., Inc., T. E. Ibberson Company, TICThe Industrial Company (``the employers''). From 1973 to the present, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA or the Agency) granted permanent variances to a number of chimney-construction companies from the provisions of the OSHA standards that regulate boatswain's chairs and hoist towers, specifically paragraph (o)(3) of 29 CFR 1926.452 and paragraphs (c)(1) through (c)(4), (c)(8), (c)(13), (c)(14)(i), and (c)(16) of 29 CFR 1926.552. These variances use temporary personnel hoist systems to transport workers to and from worksites in a personnel cage while constructing chimneys of various configurations using jump-form construction techniques and procedures. The Agency received applications from 15 employers for a variance addressing chimney and chimney-related construction that, like the previous variances, propose to use temporary personnel hoist systems to transport workers to and from worksites in a personnel cage. These variance applications, however, included conditions that address construction of chimneys and chimney-related structures using temporary hoist systems and procedures in association with two different methods of construction (i.e., jump- form and slip-form construction), regardless of the structures' configurations (i.e., tapered or straight-barreled of any diameter). OSHA consolidated these variance applications into a single application and published the application and request for comments in the Federal Register on March 21, 2013 (78 FR 17432). After considering the record as a whole, OSHA finds that these alternative conditions protect workers at least as well as the requirements specified by 29 CFR 1926.452(o)(3) and 29 CFR 1926.552(c)(1) through (c)(4), (c)(8), (c)(13), (c)(14)(i), and (c)(16). This permanent variance applies in Federal OSHA enforcement jurisdictions and in those states and territories with OSHA-approved State-Plans covering private-sector employers that have identical standards and agree to the terms of the variance.