Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

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frankbrown

Member
At my present place of employment, electricians are forced to climb in energized aerial cable trays during runtime so they can pull in cables for equipment. I do not agree with this practice, and I do not think that the NEC would permit such a practice. May I ask if there is a code that restricts this sort of action, or is it ok for electrical personnel to physically walk, crawl, or move on energized cables?
 
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izak

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MO
Re: Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

heh, wish OSHA had been there when they made US crawl hundreds of feet of live 480 volt cable tray 50 feet in the air.....

that was scary...
 
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friebel

Senior Member
Location
Pennsville, N.J.
Re: Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

The situation of crawing in a energized cable tray that has 480 cables, and you are walking, crawling, laying, etc. on the cables is a very dangerous situation. I can tell you from 45 years of experience on a DuPont Chemical plant,that would not be allowed, period.
If OSHA happened to make an unexpected visit when you were ordered to crawl in the energized cable tray, that would definitely be a heavy fine for that company.
I am an instructor now, and I hear some of the very unsafe actions that some companies allow.
 
petersonra

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Re: Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

I guess it depends on a couple things.

1. Will the cable trays hold your weight?

2. Are you walking directly on the cables? If so, maybe you could make some wooden covers to put over the trays so you walk on them instead of the wires.

3. Can you use a lift of some sort instead?

I'm not even overjoyed with adding cables to a cable tray that has live 480V wires in it, much less walking on them. Not withstanding the risk of injuring yourselves, you could also damage a cable. Maybe they'd care about that, if not about you.
 
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charlie tuna

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Re: Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

this seems to me a common sense issue --- an open cable tray is no different than an open gutter. if you abuse any energized open conductor you are asking for trouble. i have worked on high voltage (4160v) cable trays and 480 volt trays over aircraft repair facilities without any problems. any area that a conductor could be damaged by any installation work was covered with 3/4" plywood. one of the features or selling point of cable tray systems is the ease of additional cabling!
 
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hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Re: Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

Frank
No one can force anyone to do something that is that dangerous! And if they try or even allow this kind of work to go on, this is a company that does not care about their employee's. I would bring it up to management or call OSHA and the labor board. This way you have something to fall back on if your fired for blowing the whistle on them. I have been fired twice for just that. What good is the money you make if your dead! I was let go from a steel fabricating plant because I refused to walk the 80' high crane rails when I knew the crane operators were not being reprimanded for drinking on the job. Management was just looking the other way. :eek: This plant had a history of many death's that was just slipping through. And it wasn't going to be me by another's hand.

Many times we have to take safety into our own hands or we won't live very long.
 
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frankbrown

Member
Re: Electricians in Energized Cable Trays

Thank you! That is exactly what I assumed. The measures were applied as mentioned, but no results from the action. Guess I need to leave!!!
 
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