Personnel & Material Hoists for Construction Expert Article

Buck hoists, man lifts, construction hoists, and construction elevators are all names for temporary elevators used on construction projects worldwide. Temporary Personnel and Material Hoists are an integral part of many construction projects and are often the backbone on those job sites. They can be set up and used for transporting personnel only, materials only, or for both personnel and materials. They can also be utilized as permanent installations in heavy industrial settings for access and maintenance.

In this article, elevator expert Richelle McCaskill-Diaz provides an overview of personnel and material hoist anatomy and safety.

Temporary Construction Elevator Anatomy & Safety Features

Personnel and material hoists are specialized elevators engineered to handle heavy loads and navigate vertical distances in environments where traditional elevators cannot operate. From skyscraper construction to bridge construction and maintenance to heavy construction (dams, tunnels, power plants, etc.), they facilitate transportation of workers and materials, playing a crucial role in modern infrastructure development. 

Like all types of transportation, these units are machines that need to be properly installed, serviced, maintained, and inspected to provide safe transportation. Modern units come equipped with advanced safety features such as overload protection, emergency brakes, and fail-safe mechanisms to promote worker safety, as well as some automated controls.

Regulations and standards applicable to these machines are included in, but are not limited to, OSHA 29 CFR 1926, Construction Industry Regulations, in the ANSI A10 series for Safety Requirements in Construction and Demolition Operations, and the ASME elevator safety code.  

Unlike conventional building elevators, these units typically operate on a rack & pinion drive system where a motor affixed to the car structure drives a pinion gear which ‘climbs’ a vertical linear rack gear affixed to the structure under construction. 

Personnel and material hoists have many of the typical safety features found on conventional elevators. Load weighing, limit switches, interior door interlock switches, enclosed cab interiors, stop switches, speed governors, enclosed lowest landing of the hoistways, and safeties are on these units for the protection of the workers.  

Even with these safety mechanisms in place, there are a few features that provide a potential for causing a hazardous or dangerous condition.  

Potential Hazards of Construction Lifts 

Landing doors, or gates, are required as per OSHA at each entrance to the car which must protect the full width and height of the car entrance opening. This is to prevent a person from falling down the elevator shaft or being struck by a moving construction elevator.

EXAMPLE

An individual sustained injuries after being struck by a moving car while installing a landing door, which should have been in place prior to the hoist operation.

Numerous witnesses from various trades within the building reported observing the unsafe operation of the hoist. Those managing the job site should have known the standards requiring landing doors for an operating safe hoist.  This failure to provide the landing doors created foreseeable hazards and ultimately caused this injury incident.

Unlike on conventional elevators, landing door interlocks-electrical contacts are not required for hoistway door entrances on construction hoists; however, construction elevators must be provided with a mechanical lock which cannot be operated from the landing side and must only be accessible to persons on the car. The potential of a landing door being left open accidentally when the construction hoist leaves a particular level could result in a dangerous situation. 

The construction industry remains one of the most hazardous sectors of the United States workforce. Elevating workers and materials on and to different building levels is vital to many construction projects. Competent persons are usually assigned to identify hazardous conditions and to mitigate those conditions to help ensure the safety of workers onsite.

Even with safety being managed on various levels within construction sites, falls, being struck by, electrocutions, and caught in-between injuries and deaths account for approximately 150,000 incidences recorded in the construction sector annually, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statics. 

Applicable Regulations & Laws 

OSHA, ASME, ANSI and many local jurisdictions have laws, regulations, standards, and requirements that must be followed to ensure that construction hoists are reasonably safe.  

Safety training must be a priority when working on or managing any job site. In environments that host many different trades, everyone onsite should be aware of their surroundings and watch out not only for themselves, but for their coworkers. Workers who operate and maintain construction lifts should be properly and thoroughly trained, and should be familiar with the laws and regulations that accompany the use of construction lifts.  

Construction Hoist Injury Investigations 

The elevator experts at Robson Forensic have the necessary training, education and experience to investigate a broad range of mishaps involving elevators, escalators and other forms of vertical transportation equipment encompassed under the A17.1 and associated Safety Codes.   

For more information, submit an inquiry or call us at 800.813.6736. 

Featured Expert

Richelle McCaskill-Diaz, CEI

Elevator & Escalator Expert

Richelle McCaskill-Diaz is an elevator and escalator expert with nearly three decades of industry experience as a mechanic, testing mechanic, foreman, and elevator inspector. Her expertise spans… read more.