Plan The Pour: A Concrete Work Safety Checklist

On the sample job: the edge footing, ten pads, sixteen hairpin trench legs and the thickened band under the block walls. All shallow, all open until the pour.

• ☐Locate underground utilities before the excavation is opened, and contact the utility owners as the rule requires. 1926.651(b)
• ☐Have a competent person inspect the excavations each day before work starts, and again after rain or any other change that raises the hazard. 1926.651(k)(1)
• ☐Protect workers from cave-ins. A protective system is required unless the excavation is entirely in stable rock, or is less than 5 feet deep and a competent person finds no sign of a potential cave-in. 1926.652(a)(1)
• ☐Keep spoil, forms and rebar bundles at least 2 feet back from the edge, or hold them back with retaining devices. 1926.651(j)(2)
• ☐In trenches 4 feet deep or more, give workers a ladder, ramp or stairway within 25 feet of lateral travel. 1926.651(c)(2)

More in our trench and excavation guide.

On the sample job: pad mats, edge bars, hairpins on their plates and 59 dowels, all tied down. The dowels stand up out of the footing for the grouted block cells and stay exposed until the block goes over them.

• ☐Guard every protruding bar a worker could fall onto or into, so the impalement hazard is eliminated. Dowels, starter bars and vertical bars all count. 1926.701(b)
• ☐Order the caps or covers from the takeoff count, so none run short on the day. The sample needs cover for 59 dowels.
• ☐Keep form scrap with protruding nails and other debris cleared from work areas and passageways around the forms. 1926.25(a)
• ☐Book the footing and slab steel inspection a day or two ahead, so the last ties are not rushed before the trucks arrive.

More in our construction housekeeping guide.

On the sample job: one monolithic pour of 82.0 CY in nine trucks, pumped. Footings first, then the slab.

• ☐Plan the truck route and the spot where each truck backs up to the pump. A truck with an obstructed rear view needs a reverse alarm audible above the noise, or an observer who signals that it is safe to back. 1926.601(b)(4)
• ☐Set the pump where its outriggers bear on firm ground, as the pump maker requires, and keep the boom clear of overhead power lines. Pick the spot before pour day.
• ☐Give discharge pipes supports designed for 100 percent overload, and give compressed air hoses on the pumping system positive fail-safe joint connectors. 1926.702(e)
• ☐Use power trowels that shut off when the operator's hands leave the handles, and nonconductive or insulated bull float handles where they could touch energized lines. 1926.702(c), (h)
• ☐Wet concrete can burn skin and eyes. Provide the protective equipment the work calls for, including eye protection where splashes can reach the eyes. 1926.95(a), 1926.102(a)(1)
• ☐Order from your own quantities. Running short late in the pour puts one more truck in the backing lane while the crew rushes the finish.

More in our struck-by hazards guide.

On the sample job: 412 LF of control joints, cut 6 to 18 hours after finishing. Then the forms come off and the edge is backfilled.

• ☐Cutting concrete makes respirable crystalline silica dust. Choose the control before the saw arrives, and name the competent person who checks it. 1926.1153
• ☐Table 1 of the silica standard has a row for walk-behind saws: an integrated water delivery system that feeds water to the blade continuously, with the saw run and maintained as its maker says. 1926.1153(c)(1)
• ☐A different setup, such as a dry saw with a vacuum, falls outside that row. The exposure then has to be assessed and controlled under paragraph (d). 1926.1153(d)
• ☐Clean up with wet methods or a HEPA-filtered vacuum. Dry sweeping and compressed air are not allowed where they could add to exposure, except as the rule allows. 1926.1153(f)
• ☐The cutting window can fall at night. Light the work area and plan who is on site for the cut.

More in our silica rule guide.

On the sample job: 2,346 blocks in 14-foot walls at the restrooms. The block goes up to 9'-4" first, then to 14 feet with two bond-beam courses, with the cells grouted in lifts along the way.

• ☐Set a limited access zone on the side of the wall that will not be scaffolded: as wide as the wall is high plus 4 feet, along its full length. For the sample's 14-foot walls, that is 18 feet. 1926.706(a)
• ☐Only the workers building the wall enter the zone. It stays until the wall is supported against overturning and collapse, and for walls over 8 feet, until the bracing below is in place. 1926.706(a)
• ☐Brace masonry walls over 8 feet so they cannot overturn or collapse, unless the wall is already supported. Leave the bracing until the permanent supporting elements are in place. 1926.706(b)
• ☐On the scaffold, protect workers from falls above 10 feet, and give safe access when the platform is more than 2 feet above or below the access point. 1926.451(g)(1), (e)(1)
• ☐Masonry saws need a semicircular guard over the blade that retains blade fragments. Cutting block makes silica dust too, so the saw needs its silica control. 1926.702(i), 1926.1153

More in our scaffolding guide.