In Washington state several tunneling projects are at various stages of completion. As these projects continue and new projects begin, it's important to focus on the safety & health of workers who do this potentially dangerous work. Each tunnel presents new engineering challenges, and the field is incredibly complex. L&I is committed to partnering with employers completing these projects and sharing information to keep workers safe & healthy.

Rules & policies

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) is initiating rulemaking on the compressed air work requirements and the underground construction work requirements that are currently located in Chapter 296-36 WAC, Safety Standards — Compressed Air Work and Chapter 296-155 WAC, Part Q, Underground Construction (396 KB PDF). DOSH is scheduled to formally begin the rulemaking process on September 18, 2012 and our intent is to work with stakeholders to develop the proposed rule language.

Resources & tools

• Decompression Sickness and Tunnel Workers - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invites comments and information on decompression tables used for protecting tunneling (caisson) workers from developing decompression illnesses (198 KB PDF).

Stakeholder meetings

L&I will be forming a Tunneling and Hyperbaric Safety Work Group — a forum for labor, business and for L&I to collaboratively work together to update these standards. The goal of this work group is develop a draft set of safety and health rules to present to DOSH for adoption into the Washington Administrative Code.

Meeting Dates:

• March 6.
• April 3.
• May 1 Cancelled.
• June 5.
• July 2.
• August 7.
• September 4.

Time:

8:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
(Please note the time change from previous meetings)

Location:

AGC building,
2nd floor conference center,
1200 Westlake Avenue North,
Seattle, Wash.

Join the email LISTSERV

An email ListServ has been set up for L&I to share information about this workgroup and the meetings. You can join and leave the list here, and LISTSERV members can view the archives here.

If you have any questions please contact Cindy Ireland 360-902-5522 or Alan Lundeen, 360-902-4758.