Electrical Room Egress

[JDS5302]

I'm being asked by an architect if an Electrical Room can have a landing with stairs (2 or 3) down to where the Electrical Equipment is installed. The allotted Electrical Room is too far on one side of the building and would require a ton of conductor up-sizing for voltage drop. We're trying to determine if we can swap locations with a 1-car parking garage more centrally located but, due to the grading, a landing and stairs would be required in the new location.

As far as I can find, as long as the stairs do not impede the working space [110.26(A)], I think this is acceptable even though uncommon to me.

Entrance to and Egress from the working space [110.26(C)] has no mention of stairs and a landing but probably could be determined as an obstruction by the AHJ.

Does anyone have any insight or experience with this type of egress issue?

 

[petersonra]

Where does it say in the code that a common electrical room cannot have "obstructions" that have to be bypassed to get to the working space.

Think about common things found in electrical rooms like MCCs. It is not unusual to have to walk around one to get to a panelboard on the other side.