Following up on recommendations from their investigation of city demolition practices, City Council members unveiled a five-bill package Thursday to strengthen the safety requirements on demolition jobs and mandate minimum training for both contractors and city inspectors, among other changes.
"This legislation is the next phase of reinforcing public safety in demolition practices in Philadelphia," said Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., chairman of the Council committee that held demolition hearings over the summer, spurred by the June 5 building collapse in Center City that killed six people and injured 14 more.
Council sources said there is still significant disagreement among Council members on how stringent the new regulatory requirements should be.
Concerns include the impact on Philadelphia construction costs, the city budget implications and how it would affect the continuing friction between union and nonunion contractors, frequently accused by the construction trade unions of neglecting safety issues to save money.
Jones said last week the bills introduced Thursday would serve as vehicles for further negotiation between Council members and the Nutter administration. More input from the construction industry and its workers is certain.
Mayor Nutter issued a statement praising Council's work, citing steps his administration has already taken to strengthen regulation of demolition projects, and promising to work with Council "to ensure safety at all demolition sites in the city."
Jones's office put out a news release describing the five bills as follows:
Required training for all city building code officials in the Department of Licenses and Inspections. All would have to complete a 30-hour training program developed by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and one-fifth would need certification in a 500-hour training program known as OSHA 500, enabling them to train others.
A new requirement that a "licensed site safety monitor" be present at every construction or demolition site. Contractors would be required to keep a daily log of the monitor's attendance and submit the information to L & I.
New requirements for contractors to obtain a demolition license, including completion of OSHA 30, past demolition experience and disclosure of any past building code violations. A $2,000 penalty would be established for providing false information.
Authority for the Fire Department to issue stop work orders whenever it deems a construction or demolition site unsafe.
Creation of detailed site safety plans to be submitted to L&I before any construction or demolition projects begin, subject to review by inspectors.
All five bills were be referred to Council's Committee of the Whole.
Source: Philly.com
NYC has been doing this a looong time, about time Philly caught up. Now if they would enforce NFPA, Life Safety Code, et al it's a good start-- recommend they also look to protecting the public-- OSHA ONLY applies to employees-- which is why NYC Chapter 33 is in place-- specifically protects public-- of course a lot of overlap-- so NYC DOB inspectors are cross trained, cross sworn for OSHA violations within the city limits.
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