So last week, I was driving out of town, and the local manager asked if I felt comfortable stopping by an old 350’ tower and do the LOTO on the tower lights prior to demo. I said sure, when I signed off it asks if all sources of energy have been locked out. I’m thinking when they unbolt the top 20’ section, there’s a whole lot of un locked out potential energy, and it’s a hell of a lot more hazardous then the tower strobes.
I also realized our procedures didn’t address bleeding the caps in the strobes- and I dint have any climbing gear either.
Perhaps they should do 'the right thing' and hire in a contractor to install a temporary climbing-safety system onto the tower, and fall-restraint, and send up engineers and inspectors (drag them out from behind their desks) with ultrasonic thickness gauges to recalculate safe loading, replace the guy wires, also get confined space permits and take an atmospheric test set up there just in case there's large quantities of dihydrogen oxide or methane. Oh, and put up a Faraday cage with static dissipation to protect against atmospheric electric discharges...
Sheesh. Considering how things are today, I'm amazed that our predecessors managed to survive without being buried under all the safety equipment and protocol we have today. I'm now required to wear hard hat, goggles, hard-toed boots with non-metallic shank, arch spats, full reflective safety suit and body harness, gloves, hearing protection, and a 2-way radio, along with the gas monitor, just to climb a 12' ladder to replace a video camera. By the time I get all that gear on, I can't safely climb a ladder, much less work.
I gotta get me one of them gravity isolators, but White Cap is all out. Manager says he gets a case of 'em every two weeks, and the moment he puts 'em out, they Fly Right Off The Shelves... ;-P
so that it can be safely dismantled
Maybe you need to run an extention cord to it just to keep up morale?
