Power Line and Overhead Hazard Clearance

Purpose

This procedure sets the clearance envelope around every overhead conductor before anything is unloaded, and keeps every person, ladder, tool, metal length and trailer bed outside it for the whole job. The conductor a roofing crew contacts is almost never a transmission line. It is the service drop to a single-family home, crossing the driveway at working height, looking harmless, and offering no second chance.

Scope

Covers identifying overhead conductors and other overhead hazards, the clearance envelope, utility coordination, staging and material handling, and the response to a contact, on residential and small commercial roofing work.

Does not cover ladder setup, owned by the ladder and roof access SOP, though this procedure sets where the ladder may go, or rooftop loading by boom or conveyor, owned by the material delivery SOP, though the envelope binds it. Work on the conductors is utility or licensed electrical work, never roofing work.

Roles and responsibilities

Ten feet, and what it applies to

For work near overhead lines at 50 kV or less, 10 ft is the working number: 29 CFR 1926.451(f)(6) sets 10 ft as the minimum distance for uninsulated lines under 50 kV in scaffold work, and 29 CFR 1910.333(c)(3)(i) sets the same 10 ft for unqualified persons at 50 kV and under. Above 50 kV the distance grows, and equipment such as a crane or boom truck works to the larger distances in 29 CFR 1926.1408 rather than to this one.

It applies to everything, not just the body. Ten feet from the conductor to the nearest point of any person, ladder, tool, metal length, raised trailer bed, boom or tarp. A 10 ft length carried upright has moved the carrier's reach 10 ft closer without them feeling it.

Treat every conductor as energized and uninsulated. The covering on a residential service drop is weatherproofing, not rated insulation, it is usually decades old, and the neutral messenger is typically bare. Pulling the meter does not help: the drop is on the utility side of it and stays live.

If 10 ft cannot be held, work does not proceed on that face. Call the utility and ask for the drop to be de-energized, disconnected or covered, and get the arrangement confirmed in writing with a date. Cover-up hose reduces the consequence of incidental contact and does not make the conductor safe, so the crew still works as far off it as the task allows.

If contact happens anyway: nobody touches the person, the ladder or the equipment. Call 911 and the utility. Keep everyone back at least 10 ft, further where a conductor is down, because the ground around it is energized. A worker in or on energized equipment stays there unless fire forces them off, and if they must leave they jump clear, land with both feet together, and shuffle away without ever bridging equipment and ground.

Procedure

1. Walk the property and find every overhead line before anything is unloaded. Look for the service drop, telecom and cable drops, any secondary run to a garage or shed, and any line crossing to a neighbor. Acceptance: every overhead run identified with the whole crew present, and its path sketched on the ticket. Wrong looks like a walk that finds the drop over the driveway and misses the second run to a detached garage at the back. Stop rule: a line whose owner or type cannot be identified is treated as an energized power conductor until the utility says otherwise. Hazard: this walk is done at grade, and nobody carries a ladder or a length of metal during it.

2. Measure and mark the envelope on the ground. Measure the horizontal distance from each conductor to the building faces and the eave line, and mark 10 ft on the ground with cones, tape or paint so the boundary is visible from a ladder and from a truck seat. Acceptance: a marked boundary at every affected face, with the measured distances written down. Wrong looks like an envelope described at the huddle and never marked, which lasts until the second hour. Stop rule: a boundary nobody can see from the work position is remarked before work starts. Hazard: the tape stays horizontal and low near a drop, because a steel tape raised toward a conductor is the object this procedure exists to keep away.

3. Decide the control per face: clear, or utility arrangement in writing. Where 10 ft holds, the control is the marked envelope. Where it does not, the office calls the utility and books de-energization, disconnection or cover-up, allowing at least five business days. Acceptance: every face has a written control, either a measured clearance at or above 10 ft or a utility confirmation with a date. Wrong looks like a crew deciding they can work a face carefully because the drop is only a house service. Stop rule: no utility arrangement means that face is not worked, and the crew works the other faces or the job is rescheduled. Hazard: none at this step; the exposure is in the temptation to skip it for one course of shingles.

4. Place access, staging and the dumpster outside the envelope, and check raised heights. Set ladders, bundle staging, the dumpster or dump trailer and any conveyor outside the marked line, then compare the raised height of any tipping or telescoping unit against the measured conductor height above that spot. Acceptance: everything staged outside the marked line, and raised height measured against conductor height at that position with the difference written down. Wrong looks like a trailer parked clear of the line at rest and raised under it to dump. Stop rule: a raised height that puts any part of the unit within 10 ft of the conductor means the unit moves before it is raised, not while. Hazard: a metal ladder near a drop is a conductor, so ladders near any line are nonconductive per 29 CFR 1926.1053(b) and are carried horizontally at waist height, never upright.

5. Control long and conductive material every time it moves. Drip edge, coil stock, gutter, valley metal, ladders and wet tarps travel horizontally at waist height, two people on anything long, and never through or over the envelope. Acceptance: no material carried upright anywhere on the property, and no material path crossing the marked line. Wrong looks like one person walking a 10 ft drip edge upright across the drive because it is faster. Stop rule: material that cannot be routed around the envelope is cut into shorter lengths at the truck, or the route changes. Hazard: metal is the obvious case and not the only one, since a soaked tarp or wet rope conducts too, and anything long enough to reach is treated the same way.

6. Route debris and the tear-off path clear of the lines. Plan where shingles are thrown, where the chute or conveyor runs, and where the ground crew stands, so nothing crosses or passes under a conductor. Acceptance: a stated debris path per plane that does not cross the envelope, briefed to the ground crew. Wrong looks like a plane whose natural throw line goes straight over the service drop, worked by feel. Stop rule: a plane with no clear debris path is bagged and carried down rather than thrown. Hazard: material thrown near a drop can catch and pull it down on the crew, so nothing is thrown within the envelope even though the thrower is outside it.

7. Brief the envelope and the contact response before work, and again on any crew change. Say the boundary, the reason and the response out loud, and have someone repeat the contact response back. Acceptance: every person on site that day, including a late arrival or a delivery driver, has been walked the envelope. Wrong looks like a morning brief the afternoon crew never received. Stop rule: anyone who has not had the brief does not work, and that includes subcontractors and the material delivery driver. Hazard: none in the briefing itself; the brief is the control that carries the rest of the day.

8. Re-verify the envelope after any change on site. A delivery, an equipment move, a repositioned dumpster, a lift, or a change in where the crew works all reopen the question. Acceptance: a fresh walk of the affected area and a fresh mark whenever anything is added or moved, recorded with a time. Wrong looks like an envelope set at 7 am and a boom truck backed into it at 2 pm. Stop rule: equipment inside the envelope stops where it is and nobody touches it or the ground around it until the utility has been called if there is any chance of contact. Hazard: re-verification often happens while a driver is backing, so the person walking the envelope is not the person spotting the vehicle.

The record this produces

One overhead-hazard entry per job: date, address, every overhead run with its type and owner, the measured horizontal distance from each conductor to each affected face, the measured conductor height above any equipment position, the control chosen per face, the utility contact with its date and written confirmation, raised heights of tipping or telescoping equipment, the debris path per plane, who received the brief, and every re-verification with its time.

The lead writes it before the first ladder goes up and updates it on any change; the office keeps the utility confirmation with the job. If anything goes wrong on that site, this entry is the only contemporaneous account of the clearances.

Worked pass: single-story reroof, service drop across the north-east corner

Step 1 finds two overhead runs: the service drop from the street pole to a weatherhead at the north-east corner, and a cable drop to the same corner. The cable drop is treated as an energized power conductor until identified, per the stop rule, and the utility later confirms which is which.

Step 2 measures the service drop at its closest approach to the north eave: 6 ft 4 in horizontal. Ten feet is required, so the shortfall is 10 ft minus 6 ft 4 in, or 3 ft 8 in.

Step 3 fails on the north face. The measured 6 ft 4 in is under 10 ft and there is no utility arrangement, so the acceptance is not met and the stop rule fires. That span of the north eave is not worked. The other three elevations measure outside the envelope and are worked that day, so the crew loses one face rather than the job. The utility installs cover-up three business days later, and the lead's brief on the return day says plainly that cover-up is protection against incidental contact and not de-energization, so the crew works that span from the far side and keeps every tool and metal length as far off it as the work allows.

Step 4 catches the second one. The drop measures 14 ft 6 in above the driveway where the dump trailer was parked, and the trailer plate gives a raised height of 15 ft 8 in. In inches that is 188 against 174, so raised the bed stands 14 in above the conductor at that spot. The stop rule fires before it is raised: the trailer moves 24 ft down the drive toward the pole, where the drop measures 27 ft 0 in above grade, so 324 in minus 188 in leaves 136 in, or 11 ft 4 in, of clearance, and the bed goes up only after that check.

Step 5 held: 10 ft drip edge lengths went around the marked line, two people at waist height. The lead's note is that the estimator's photo showed the drop and nobody measured it at sale, so the crew met a three-day utility lead time on the morning of the job. Measuring the closest approach at the estimate is what turns this from a lost face into a scheduling line.

References

• 29 CFR 1926.451(f)(6) for clearance from power lines in scaffold work, and 29 CFR 1910.333(c)(3)(i) for the 10 ft distance an unqualified person keeps from exposed energized parts at 50 kV and under
• 29 CFR 1926.416(a)(1) for work near energized lines in construction, and 29 CFR 1926.1408 for equipment such as a crane or boom truck working near power lines
• 29 CFR 1926.1053(b) for portable ladder use, including nonconductive siderails where a ladder or worker could contact exposed energized equipment
• Your serving utility, which owns the service drop and is the only party that de-energizes, disconnects or covers it, in writing