Masonry Magazine September 2004 Page. 28
Wall Bracing
OSHA's primary goal is the safety of life.
It's 6:00 a.m. on Monday. As you drive up to the job site, the general contractor's superintendent meets you at the gate. You look toward the site and, before even exiting the car, you see a major problem. Your 30-foot tall concrete block walls have blown down over the weekend. Thousands of dollars of scaffolding is damaged, a forklift that was parked near the wall is totaled, pallets of material are obliterated and unusable. You glance in your rearview mirror and see an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance officer pull up behind you. Happy Monday!
Realizing it was your responsibility to properly brace the block wall on Friday, you know your supervisor will not be happy. Immediately, you contact your supervisor to tell him what happened. Next, you sit down in the trailer with the OSHA representative and general contractor to discuss the previous weekend's events. Afterward, the three of you take a walk through the site and assess the damage. Although there is quite a bit of damage to the site, because the wall blew down over the weekend, there were no workers on the job site. After the walkthrough and a post walk-through meeting, the OSHA representative leaves and you and your crew are left to clean up the mess and rebuild the walls. Chances are your company will have higher insurance premiums, be back-charged by the general contractor, and likely receive an OSHA citation stating that the bracing on the masonry walls was not adequate. But was it?
The Purpose of Wall Bracing
OSHA'S MISSION is to assure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual improvement in workplace safety and health. This means that OSHA's primary goal is the safety of life. Given this focus, 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 1926 Subpart Q Section 706 establishes the requirements for masonry construction as it pertains to life safety.
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MCAA MASONRY WALLBRACING DESIGN HANDBOOK
Listing over 700 wallbracing examples, MCAA's "Masonry Wall- bracing Design Handbook" is a must-have for mason contractors, project managers and foremen looking to create an OSHA-compli ant, safe work site in minutes. Whether you have reinforced or unreinforced walls, a fixed or pinned base, or building with 8" or 12" CMU, this handbook will guide you to the proper placement of the wall bracing. Plus, all of the eng neering design calculations adhere to the Standard Practice for Bracing Masonry Walls Under Construction created by the Council for Masonry Wall Bracing. Above all, the handbook will assist you and your crew in the effort to keep an accident-free job site.
MASONRY
WALLBRACING
DESIGN
HANDBOOK
To purchase your copy of the "Masonry Wallbracing Design Hand- book" ($45 member, $65 non-member), contact MCAA at (847) 301- 0001, or toll-free (800) 536-2225.