Is it legal to cut out portions of cable tray side rail ?

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Isaiah

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Location
Baton Rouge
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Electrical Inspector
The electricians want to ‘notch’ the cable tray side rail so wireways can be attached to it and transition the cabling into it. They’d remove approximately 12” of the rail at several locations along the tray to accommodate 6 wire ways. Since cable tray is not raceway- it’s structural support- I believe the can be done within code although it seems contrary to my thinking.
It also may alter considerably the structural integrity of the tray.
Comments?


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Isaiah said:
The electricians want to ‘notch’ the cable tray side rail so wireways can be attached to it and transition the cabling into it. They’d remove approximately 12” of the rail at several locations along the tray to accommodate 6 wire ways. Since cable tray is not raceway- it’s structural support- I believe the can be done within code although it seems contrary to my thinking.
It also may alter considerably the structural integrity of the tray.
Comments?


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I'd give that a big pause before going ahead. The side rails provide some of the structural integrity to the complete system. As I visualize it, you have a "C" channel where the stiffness against sagging comes entirely from the side rails. If you start cutting the rails you could get buckling at the location of the removed rail.
 
If you are attaching the wireway directly to the cable tray, the connection needs to be listed for that purpose.
 
110.3 (b)
A call or email to the mfg would be in order.
Also get the catalog and see what accessories it’s shows.
 
We had a lot of that basket cable tray installed. Many times the tray made square or tee shapes up above. The electricians just cut out the side where the corner or tees were made with bolt cutters. There are plastic corner curves you can get to make a rounded edge, and they may even make pre made bends and tee transitions in the basket tray but they are crazy expensive (even the plastic flex corners and cable waterfalls were crazy expensive for what they are). These were cable trays for low voltage cables. No one ever thought this tray was very structural, so it usually had unistrut run under it or at least cross supports rather frequently. They would put those supports very near or at any cutout for a tee or corner.

Whether this is legal or not I don't know. I was never impressed with the inspectors when they came to look at our industrial establishment. Sometimes they would find a little nit to pick, but they tended to give a lot of leeway.
 
petersonra said:
So what adaptor is available to let you hook a piece of conduit to this?

View attachment 2559169
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I haven't looked but I wouldn't normally attach a conduit directly to that type of cable tray. I typically use that style with TC-ER that jumps straight to the equipment from the tray or into a separately secured bushed conduit.

Edit: Here you go:

1643144750620.png
 
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Isaiah said:
The electricians want to ‘notch’ the cable tray side rail so wireways can be attached to it and transition the cabling into it. They’d remove approximately 12” of the rail at several locations along the tray to accommodate 6 wire ways. Since cable tray is not raceway- it’s structural support- I believe the can be done within code although it seems contrary to my thinking.
It also may alter considerably the structural integrity of the tray.
Comments?


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Click to expand...
I agree with thoughts also , when I first read your I thought of 90`s and T`s , you can never have a perfect so we cut and support accordingly .
 
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